Maine among world’s top summer Airbnb destinations this year

Maine among world’s top summer Airbnb destinations this year

Maine is among the top summer travel destinations in the world, lodging site Airbnb said Wednesday.

Maine was ranked eighth on a list of the top summer destinations worldwide based on searches from the first quarter of 2022. The state was the only American location on the list, which also included Ibiza in Spain and a town on the Italian island of Sardinia. Turkey’s port city of Bodrum was No. 1.

Airbnb travel has been growing in Maine. Hosts in Maine earned more than $180 million in Maine in 2021, $20 million of which came from new hosts, a company spokesperson said. That is nearly double the $91 million in income statewide hosts made in 2019, according to company data.

The upsurge in popularity Maine has seen on Airbnb in recent years reflects the boost in interest it saw during the COVID-19 pandemic in a state already known as a travel destination, said Tracy Michaud, a professor of tourism at the University of Southern Maine.

“People were really looking for nature, outdoor recreational opportunities, fresh air, space,” Michaud said. “Maine has always had a brand of being authentic and relatively safe. It’s not a surprise there’s been an uptick in Airbnbs.”

That spike is likely to be of great assistance to restaurants, bars and shops, among other businesses across the state. It also has the potential to put further pressure on a housing market where short-term rentals appear to be reducing the supply of available homes.

Maine among world’s top summer Airbnb destinations this year