The objective of the partnership is to connect travelers with locals through the creation of new Experiences throughout Lithuania. To this end, Lithuania Travel and Airbnb will curate more than twenty unique Airbnb Experiences led by locals. This will also help to drive tourism outside the touristic centres and boost visitor growth and the local economy. With the expansion of Experiences in the whole of the Baltic region Estonia and Latvia will add their local tourism offers to the Airbnb platform.
Kathrin Anselm, General Manager DACH, CEE and Russia Airbnb: “Besides finding a place to stay, more and more travelers are also seeking unique and authentic experiences during their trip. We very much look forward to working towards sustainable tourism in the Baltics together with Lithuania Travel and welcome the support from other destination marketing organisations in the region. The Baltic states offer a great variety to travelers from all over the world and we are excited that visitors will be able to get to know the local culture through Experiences.”
Dalius Morkvėnas, General Manager of Lithuania Travel: “Our Experiences partnership with Airbnb will greatly help us boost the demand for travel to Lithuania and the other Baltic states and increase the range of offerings for visitors. We highly support such collaborations that help local tourism businesses receive additional visibility on a global level.”
Airbnb Experiences, which were launched globally in 2016, offer visitors handcrafted activities, tours and educational workshops led by local experts, from walking tours through Vilnius’ historic centre to sailing in the Baltic bay. They were created out of the demand from travelers to unlock a different side of their destination through the eyes of locals. To date, travelers can choose from over 40,000 Experiences in more than 1,000 cities all over the world. Experiences are unique, with many available only on Airbnb. And each Experience is reviewed to ensure it meets our quality standards before it is listed on the Airbnb platform.
In January, Airbnb also announced the first tax collaboration in Central and Eastern Europe with the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Vilnius is the first City in the Baltics, where a platform is automatically collecting tourism levies due per night and per person is transferring it directly to the City of Vilnius on behalf of hosts and guests. Airbnb has over 400 agreements with local and national governments and organizations around the world on the automated collection of tourism taxes. Globally, Airbnb has already collected more than $2 billion in tourist-related taxes through such agreements.