Through this initiative Airbnb was able to create a unique opportunity to empower, benefit and preserve local communities, while leveraging our audiences: the younger generation who are willing explore and treasure their traditions through authentic and meaningful experiences.

In China’s sprint forward towards progress, cultural customs, arts and crafts that are essential to the Chinese identity are in need of preservation. With Airbnb championing the philosophy “Belong Anywhere”, the brand decided to take the opportunity to find a new way for these heritages and their practitioners to find their place in China’s future.

In the context of alleviating disappearing cultural heritages in China, how could Airbnb promote “healthy tourism” where local communities are the primary beneficiaries? The business challenge focused on how could Airbnb utilize its platform for the greater good of China's local communities, while attracting millennials who look for local and authentic activities on their travel.

The idea refers to the typical “Lost & Found section”, where things that are lost can be claimed back again. This analogy applies to our initiative - finding heritages that are disappearing, and bringing it back to the spotlight to be found. We realized that the issue for disappearing heritages in China was the lack of next generation students to pass on these traditions.

To help with alleviate this problem, we decided to use our online travel platform, which is based on a community of “home hosts”, by creating a new category of hosts: Masters that can give apprenticeships of their cultural heritage.

At an instant, masters who are generally tucked away in villages, are now exposed to potential students from all over the world. With our guest who travel with Airbnb to find authentic and local experiences, these heritages now have an increased chance to spread its legacy.

The business challenge came to light through our research on our platform, we noticed a shifting focus in millennial travelers as they were looking for more authentic experiences that are one of a kind.

To capture this growing shift in consumer habits, Airbnb wanted to utilize it’s experience platform in a more meaningful and unique way. The goal was to promote “healthy tourism” where local people and communities they live in are the primary beneficiaries.

Through this initiative Airbnb would be able to encourage the younger generation to explore and value the treasure of tradition, while empowering emerging destinations and fostering economic growth in minority communities.

The Lost and Found initiative partnered with local governments from four regions: Beijing Dongcheng District, Guangzhou Yuexiu District, Chengdu and Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture.

These local governments played a central role in coordinating and mobilizing the masters. With their help, the project trained over 100 craftsmen and artisans. Leading to Airbnb launching 40 unique exclusive Experiences featuring Intangible Cultural Heritage elements aimed to connect traditional and local culture to international tourists.

In the first month of launching, the experiences received over 400% increase in bookings.

With zero media investment, the “Lost & Found” campaign amplified our message of preserving traditional culture to the general public, gaining over a total of 400+ earned media press hits and 119 million total impressions, The campaign created further avenues of collaboration, including a physical “Lost & Found” exhibition with the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, China’s leading contemporary art institution. This exhibition caught attention on the national level which included 10 key regional TV stations. Socially, the campaign also generated further discussion through a series of documentaries and partnerships with influencers across our own channels, creating over 7 million views and generating over 10,000 interactions.

Airbnb's brand purpose is to create belonging for everyone in the world. Since villages in China are disappearing due to mass urbanization, and along the century old art & crafts, Airbnb saw an opportunity to bring sustainable tourism through our business model, and preserve authentic local communities.