KUALA LUMPUR: Hospitality marketplace Airbnb has contributed about RM3.98 billion to Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP), supporting 52,100 local jobs in 2019, according to Oxford Economics.
In a report titled "The Economic Impact of Airbnb in Malaysia", the independent global advisory firm revealed that the tourism sector had benefited from Airbnb guests who had been spending on local communities.
"Between 2015 and 2019, Airbnb guests spent a total of RM11.8 billion, growing at an annual rate of 79.6 per cent in Malaysia.
"For every RM100 spent by Airbnb tourists outside their accommodation spend, about RM49 went on shopping, activities and other related items while RM24 were spent on restaurants," said Oxford Economics.
Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, Airbnb had been creating opportunities for families, small businesses and communities that benefit from short-term rental accommodation across Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region.
The report also highlighted that the largest share of spending occurred in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
Areas such as Johor and Sabah saw their share of contribution to national GDP more than double to 4.0 per cent to 9.3 per cent and 4.9 per cent to 10.7 per cent, respectively from 2015 to 2019.
"Airbnb could play an important role in supporting the earlier recovery of domestic travel by helping households, particularly those who seek to substitute an international trip with a domestic one, discover new areas in their own country to visit,"!said Oxford Economics director of economic consulting in Asia James Lambert.
The firm said Airbnb's community would play a key role in supporting Malaysia's long-term recovery by unlocking economic opportunities and creating local jobs.
Lambert said Airbnb may be able to play an important role in providing accommodation solutions to under-supplied or otherwise dislocated markets, amid this new environment.
"In 2019, much of Airbnb's growth in Malaysia is powered by Malaysians with 63 per cent of the guests staying in the 66,000 Airbnb listings in the country, as opposed to 43 per cent in 2015."
Oxford Economics said this continued to be in line with domestic tourism being a key driver of the sector, as domestic tourists represented around half of the country's tourism economy in 2019.
"This upward trend is in line with the recent surge in domestic travel bookings in Malaysia following the lifting of travel restrictions around the country during the current Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO)."
Airbnb Asia Pacific public policy director Mike Orgill said the recovery of national economies and the recovery of the Malaysian tourism industry were inextricably linked.
"This new report confirms that the Airbnb community is a proven way to grow Malaysian tourism, help local communities and create tens of thousands of local jobs," he said.
Orgill believes the report offered timely insights for the future as it considers whether the current regulatory framework remains relevant and fit-for-purpose.
"Regulations that may have worked pre-Covid may not work post-coved," he said.
Across Asia Pacific, Airbnb's economic contribution grew faster than broader tourism at an average as it supported a total contribution of US$22.7 billion to the region's GDP in 2019.
The platform also played a role in driving the growth of economic opportunities across the region, supporting a total of 925,600 jobs in Asia Pacific or 1.0 per cent of its tourism sector total employment.