Airbnb users spend US$2.1 bln in S. Korea in 2019

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- Users of the global house-sharing platform Airbnb Inc. spent US$2.1 billon in South Korea in 2019, the company said Wednesday.

The amount accounted for 4.2 percent of total tourist spending in Asia's fourth-largest economy, with Airbnb users' median expenditures standing at $445.

Airbnb users and hosts contributed $1.91 billion to South Korea's gross domestic product last year, or 0.12 percent of the country's total GDP.

The amount was about seven times more than the $260 million recorded in 2015, a year after Airbnb's entry into South Korea.

In 2018, 2.9 million domestic and foreign tourists used Airbnb, up 56 percent from a year earlier. Seven out of 10 Airbnb users were locals, with about 156,200 Chinese tourists staying at Airbnb accommodations here, accounting for 17 percent of all foreign users.

Airbnb said spending by its users in South Korea totaled $5.5 billion between 2015 and 2019.

The house-sharing platform has created nearly 55,000 jobs in South Korea since it started operations here in 2014, the company added.

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