Students enrolled in the new course A Journey Through the Sharing Economy taught by associate professor Stuart Levy were recently in San Francisco, where they met with leaders from companies revolutionizing the travel industry through peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms. AirBnB and Uber for example, are not only improving the user experience, they’re gaining enormous competitive advantage over traditional travel and tourism companies.
Chip Conley, AirBnB’s Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy explained how the eight year-old company—which in July alone saw 2 million guests and is now valued at $30 billion—is striving to become the “global super brand of travel.” AirBnB's future success will be based on its ability to collect and analyze data on its users and then to use that information to offer curated travel experiences. So, for example, based on a customer’s recent stay, AirBnB may be able to assemble an individually-tailored set of recommendations that goes beyond accommodations to include dining and activity options.
The George Washington University’s International Institute of Tourism Studies is working with destinations to access and analyze data on their partners by facilitating collaborations with P2P tech companies. Join us to learn more at the Development & Management of Tourist-Oriented Walkable Urban Places seminar September 21st through the 23rd at George Washington University. This executive seminar will introduce participants to the use of AirBnB data in analyzing the role of walkable urban places in tourism performance. Metropolitan Washington, DC will be used as the prototype for designing a model for a walkable city tourism strategy. Through these partnerships, even destinations with traditionally limited marketing capacity have the ability to reach new customers and to improve the visitor experience. To learn how the International Institute of Tourism Studies can help your destination to join the growing trend of P2P engagement, please contact us at iits@gwu.edu.
