Airbnb and the U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) have created a partnership including pilot programs that train women in poorer areas to use the home-sharing platform.
The program is part of the U.N.’s designation of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.
“Airbnb has established a roadmap for government and NGO partners to use its platform to help lift underserved populations through tourism,” according to a piece written by Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the WTO, and Christopher Lehane, global head of policy and public affairs at Airbnb and published on Medium.com.
Airbnb is working with local partners in rural areas “by bringing healthy tourism to undiscovered parts of South Africa’s Western Cape, China’s greater Guilin region and India.” The platform had previously initiated a project to train women in the state of Gujarat to host on Airbnb’s platform.