Airbnb in the Byron Shire, Australia – bane or blessing?

Abstract

Purpose Scholarly research into community members’ views on the positive and negative impacts of Airbnb on the local community is sparse, especially in regional Australia. The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of key informants in the Byron Shire of Australia about the impacts of Airbnb on the local community, as well as possible solutions to the problems. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach of in-depth interviewing using a semi-structured interview guide was used to capture the views regarding the impacts of Airbnb held by 22 key informants in the Byron Shire community. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The 22 interviewees identified five main positive impacts of Airbnb on the Byron Shire community and eight main negative impacts of Airbnb. All participants said they wanted more regulation of Airbnb properties to help address the negative impacts of Airbnb in the community. Eight specific recommendations were offered by the interviewees. Research limitations/implications The negative impacts of Airbnb felt by local community are more extensive and deleterious than have been accounted for in the literature. Research into community stakeholder perspectives is important, in order to gain a fuller view of the costs and benefits of sharing economy, especially with regard to short-term letting or holiday letting in tourism centres, as well as potential for more sustainable solutions to the issues. Practical implications The findings are being used to inform policy makers’ decisions in managing Airbnb in the Shire. Social implications The involvement of key informant community members in this study highlights that there is much common ground between different stakeholders. This type of research may help to provide a sense of enfranchisement and empowerment. This is important in fostering a more balanced public debate, as well as more sustainable approaches to managing the issues. Originality/value This paper is the first to explore the views of a range of different key informants in the regional tourist area of Byron Shire in Australia with regard to the positive and negative impacts of Airbnb on the local community, as well as possible solutions to the issues raised by Airbnb.

The Sharing Economy and Sustainability of Urban Destinations in the (Over)tourism Context: The Social Capital Theory Perspective

“…The SE as a cause of overtourism [77,80,[85][86][87] The SE as a factor of consolidating/speeding overtourism [29,42] Making use of private accommodation as a consumer authenticity and localhood trend [26,29,47,77,[88][89][90] Proliferation of the SE accommodation as a factor leading to deterioration of residents' perception/attitudes towards tourism/tourists [2,3,28,31,80] The SE collating overtourism…”

“…Thus, the resident negative perceptions of and attitudes towards the SE are interpreted as a manifestation of unsustainability, and the positive opinions and reactions to the SE as a manifestation of its sustainability. [31] towards the SE could vary in specific destinations-for example, the predominance of positive attitudes in Majorka, Spain [2] and the USA [38] vs. the predominance of negative attitudes in Barcelona, Spain [31] and Byron Bay, Australia [31] was identified-the juxtaposing of all the reviewed studies indicates the dominance of unsustainable impacts of the SE (Table 2.). The most frequently raised issue refers to the interference of exponential and ungoverned growth of informal peer-to-peer accommodation on local residents' lives and the costs thereof.…”

“…Thus, the externalities resulting from the SE in (over)tourism context on the community level could be a laboratory for SE's influence in general.Although sustainability issues involving the SE have been discussed quite often in the tourism development context [1,24,26,29], these studies were contextual, based on the case studies, and also related to various conceptual frameworks(or none, if not indicated by the authors). The majority of them identify and characterize the positive/negative impact of the SE on local communities by referring to respondents' opinions or figures indicating a certain stage or level of the phenomenon [3,4,30,31]. Theoretical studies investigating the process of the SE impact itself through the prism of concrete theoretical frameworks can hardly be found.…”

“…In general, the residents will support the development of a phenomenon or activity, if they perceive more positive impacts (benefits) than negative impacts (cost) from it [40]. The Social Representation Theory is an alternative concept, applied by von der Heidt et al [31]. It refers to a system of symbolic representations-which could be conceptualised as "a history of mentalities" instead of objective reality-shared both by individuals and society.…”

A decade of systematic literature review on Airbnb: the sharing economy from a multiple stakeholder perspective

“…Some research shows that residents have positive rather than negative perceptions of Airbnb ( Dogru et al., 2019 ; Jordan and Moore, 2018 ; Yeager et al., 2020 ). Resident perceptions are that Airbnb enables them to interact with tourists, reduces loneliness, promotes solidarity, preserves the natural environment, and offers more business and job opportunities ( Balampanidis et al., 2019 ; Contu et al., 2019b ; Farmaki and Stergiou, 2019 ; Grimmer and Vorobjovas-Pinta, 2019 ; Jordan and Moore, 2018 ; Petruzzi et al., 2020 ; Suess et al., 2020 ; von der Heidt et al., 2019 ). In addition, Airbnb also promotes the physical rehabilitation of private buildings and city “beautification” projects ( Chamusca et al., 2019 ), advocating for the emergence of hospitality micro-entrepreneurs ( Wyman et al., 2020 ).…”