UK: Airbnb has reported an 80 per cent rise in visitors to Britain in the last year as travellers take advantage of the weaker pound.
The company said the growth in inbound visitors to the United Kingdom using Airbnb was 81 per cent between July 2016 and July 2017, taking visitor numbers to 5.9 million.
The UK is the fifth largest country in terms of numbers of Airbnb listings. London has reached 64,000 active listings, the company said. In December, it introduced a new rule to block hosts from renting out homes in the British capital for more than 90 days in a year.
“The UK continues to break records on Airbnb – both as a world-leading destination, and for the benefits that hosting generates for local families and their communities,” said James McClure, general manager for Northern Europe at Airbnb.
The fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit referendum has seen a significant increase in overseas visitor numbers to the UK. Britain received the highest number of foreign visitors ever in the second quarter, while Heathrow, Europe’s largest airport, has reported a record August.</p
