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Airbnb is now offering ‘Adventures’ that include orca-spotting in B.C. and rafting in the Yukon

Platform that launches today features 200 excursions on six continents, 10 of them in Canada

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Home-sharing giant Airbnb is diving deeper into the world of experiential travel with a new category of offerings called Airbnb Adventures — multi-day, hosted trips that can be tacked on to an existing vacation or booked independently.

There will be more than 200 ventures on six continents available when the service launches Thursday. This tally includes 10 in Canada, among them a 10-day hiking and rafting expedition in Whitehorse, Yukon that runs $6,292 a person and an orca-spotting ‘glamping’ excursion along the Campbell River in British Columbia.

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On the international side, the adventures offered range from the quirky to the far-flung. These include a three-day paranormal tour of the southwest U.S. from Cedar City, Utah, to Nevada, that stops at ghost towns, abandoned mines and even Area 51 and costs $1,709 a person. There is also a four-day trip to the islands of Norrkoping, Sweden, where visitors can forage for lunch one day and feast with fishermen the next.

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Prices can run as low as $89 for a camping trip or around $6,000 for a 10-day trek. All adventures will be fully hosted similar to their Experiences platform, including logistics and accommodations.

“Our vision is to become the end-to-end travel platform. Provide all parts of the trip,” said Joe Zadeh, Airbnb’s vice-president of Experiences. “Where you stay, what you do. In some ways Adventures is just an acceleration of that long-term vision.”

Airbnb’s new endeavour is backed up by data — a 2018 study by Expedia and the Center for Generational Kinetics revealed that 74 per cent of Americans value experiences over things. Airbnb offers travellers more than 30,000 different Experiences in a thousand countries.

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That same study found 57 per cent of Americans to be saving for travel. For millennials, the travel bug was highest at 65 per cent. Younger generations are the most likely to plan for long weekend trips, ranging from three to five days.

Many of the initial Adventure offerings can easily slot into weekend plans, making them attractive even for locals. Like the company’s lofty vision, Zadeh sees few if any limits to their new offering.

“Maybe an Adventure extending to something really much longer, maybe even crossing multiple countries or even continents,” said Zadeh “What we really care about is that you have deeper access that you can’t have anywhere else and you’re really connecting with the host.”

The hosts can be knowledgeable individuals turned entrepreneurs or smaller operations that partnered with Airbnb, which says it vets all for quality. Airbnb says that some of their top Experience hosts have made up to $300,000 a year.

As for their Canadian plans, Zadeh said that there would be 10 Adventures at launch, mostly concentrated on the West Coast.

“We see ourselves moving further east for the rest of the year and into next year. I believe Canada has so much amazing nature and off-the-beaten path stuff to offer that I think it’s going to be a very big country for Adventures.”

In 2018, Airbnb posted $2.6 billion in revenue. CEO Brian Chesky has pledged to hold an IPO before 2020.

Airbnb isn’t the only travel giant changing with the times. Marriott International Inc. offers around 120,000 experiences, mostly for the high-end consumer. TripAdvisor Inc. has been offering experiences since the early 2000s, which now number around 200,000.

• Email: nsokic@postmedia.com

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