O Canada! It was another big year in travel for the Great White North in 2023. As the year comes to a close, we’re celebrating some of the biggest and brightest Canadian travel stories here at Airbnb, wrapped in a giant red and white bow.
New (and hospitable) Canadian Hosts
More and more Canadians are turning to Airbnb to earn additional income, with eight in 10 Canadian Hosts telling us that the income earned from home sharing has helped them cope with the rising cost of living.1 With affordability top-of-mind for many, we announced our top new Hosts, including new Canadian Hosts who accounted for over half a million check-ins in 2022 alone.
In addition to earning extra income, hosting allows Canadians to welcome guests into their communities. The passion for hospitality was on full display this year when we revealed our most hospitable Hosts who collectively racked up over 2,000 five-star reviews among them. Nearly half of our most hospitable Hosts live in the home they also share with guests–a testament to the infamous Canadian kindness.
Canadian Guest Favourites
Finding those great places to stay in Canada (or around the world!) starts by knowing which homes guests love the most. That’s why we created Guest Favourites as part of our 2023 Winter Release–a collection of the 2 million most-loved homes on Airbnb based on ratings, reviews, and reliability data from over half a billion trips.
In Canada, nearly 40 percent of listings are included as Guest Favourites– this means domestic and international travellers have many options from coast-to coast-to coast to choose from. To help inspire wanderlust for guests, we revealed 10 of the most-loved Guest Favourites in Canada.2
10 of Canada’s most-loved Guest Favourites
Loft des Marmites, Sutton, Quebec
Charming Tiny House, Cochrane, Alberta
Surrounded by Woods, Mount Currie, British Columbia
Beau’s, The Portico Room, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Percy Place, Kamloops, British Columbia
Rest Ashored, Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia
The Woodland Escape, Marlbank, Ontario
Tiny House Living, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
The Woodland Escape, Marlbank, Ontario
La Cabin Ride & Sleep, Lac-Beauport, Quebec
Giving back in 2023
We’re committed to giving back to the neighbourhoods and towns our Hosts call home. To that end, we created the Airbnb Community Fund to distribute $100 million USD through the end of 2030 to help strengthen communities around the world. In 2023, Airbnb Community Fund grants helped support Canadian organizations making a difference in communities across the country including Surfrider Foundation Canada, funds used to support beach cleanups in Vancouver, plastic pollution education and an awareness to address cigarette litter.
Promoting a growing Indigenous tourism sector
From 2018 to 2022, nights booked in Indigenous communities increased by more than 50 percent in Canada, as guests took part in a Indigenous culture and helped generate vital economic activity.
To further support tourism in Indigenous communities, we continued our partnership with the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC). As part of the partnership, Airbnb highlighted listings and activities in Indigenous communities. This year, we also proudly supported ITAC’s Indigenous Tourism Destination Fund with the goal of supporting a thriving Indigenous tourism economy across Canada.
Dispersing travel and generating spending in Canadian communities
This year, we issued a new report detailing how Airbnb disperses travel across Canadian cities and towns. The report found that nearly half of Airbnb listings are located in areas with no hotels.
With Airbnb Hosts often the primary–if not the only–providers of accommodations and drivers of local tourism, Hosts and guests support small businesses in communities that traditionally have not benefited from tourism dollars. By welcoming visitors to their homes and neighbourhoods, Hosts on Airbnb help generate millions in tax revenue for all three levels of government. In 2022, alone, we collected and remitted over $177 million CAD in tourism taxes, including nearly $70 million CAD in federal taxes.
With 2023 coming to a close, we’re also setting out sights on the new year, as we unveiled next year’s top trending travel destinations in 2024 with Quebec City, Vernon and Prince Edward County the top domestic trending destinations for Canadians in 2024, and Buenos Aires, Stockholm and Mykonos the top trending international destinations.
The post Recapping Canada: Guest Favourites and giving back top 2023 appeared first on Airbnb Newsroom.
