Airbnb Branding: Heritage as a Branding Element in the Sharing Economy

Alvaro Fierro and Ibon Aranburu
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Alvaro Fierro: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Avda Lehendakari Agirre 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain
Ibon Aranburu: School of Engineering, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Alameda de Urquijo, 48013 Bilbao, Spain

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: The cultural heritage of cities has been proven to be a generator of economic activity and a singular place branding/marketing tool for territories. In addition, in recent times, there has been a boom in the collaborative economy in urban destinations, epitomized by accommodation companies, such as Airbnb. The main objective of this article was to analyze how cultural heritage adds value to the collaborative economy. To this end, a method was proposed that analyzed Airbnb host descriptions, detecting the cultural and heritage goods mentioned, therein, which are used as marketing elements. From these cultural assets, various econometric models were generated that aimed to assess the number of guest reviews, which were used as a proxy for the number of guests. To evaluate this method, a case study was developed in the city of Bilbao. In view of the results, it can be concluded that cultural heritage and spatial location positively influence the activity of the collaborative economy, increasing the number of guests and their economic value.

Keywords: cultural tourism; heritage; sharing economy; place branding; Airbnb; multivariate analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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