PACIS 2020 Proceedings
Abstract
The rapid growth of the sharing economy and peer-to-peer platforms presents opportunities to foster the local economy and tourism by allowing to rent one’s residence to short-stay visitors and to provide transportation services in a personal vehicle; however, this also poses challenges for incumbent industries. This study examines the roles of home-sharing, or Airbnb in particular, and ride-sharing, or Uber and Lyft in particular, in the tourism industry employment in U.S. cities. Our findings suggest that Airbnb activities (proxied by the number of Airbnb reviews) are associated with an increase in local tourism employment, and Uber availability augments the Airbnb’s contribution to tourism employment. Importantly, we also find that not all cities benefit from Airbnb; rather, it depends on public transportation accessibility and ride-sharing availability. In neighborhoods with less access to public transportation, Airbnb has a positive spillover effect on local tourism employment only when coupled with complementary ride-sharing services. This study illuminates the sharing economy’s potential to reshape the local tourism landscape, which benefits for cities that are not traditional tourist destinations.
Recommended Citation
Park, Jiyong, "How the Sharing Economy Changes the Tourism Landscape: The Complementary Impacts of Airbnb and Uber/Lyft" (2020). PACIS 2020 Proceedings. 128.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/128
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