PhD candidate Shirley Nieuwland recently had her first academic publication in Current Issues in Tourism on the topic of regulating Airbnb. Not only is Nieuwland a PhD candidate for the university, she is also an alumni of the BA Arts and Culture Studies.
The Article
Home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb have become increasingly more popular as it allows for tourists to have authentic, off-the-beaten-track experiences in neighbourhoods previously unvisited. However, Airbnb and other short-term rentals can also be distruptive to the traditional lodging industry and trigger gentrification processes. Local governments worldwide are struggling on how to regulate the short-term rentals such as Airbnb. This paper in particular compares policies of 11 European and American policies, and after that the research zooms in on how the city of Denver regulated the impact of Airbnb.
The publication: “Regulating Airbnb: how cities deal with perceived negative externalities of short-term rentals” is based on Nieuwland's master thesis and talks about how cities are dealing with short term rentals by balancing the increased pressure of tourism with the positive impacts it can generate, as well as how to regulate it accordingly
Read the full publication here.