6 Resident satisfaction with the growth of Airbnb in Ljubljana – before, during
6 Resident satisfaction with the growth of Airbnb in Ljubljana – before, during and after COVID-19
Ljubica Knezevic Cvelbar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Damjan Vavpotic, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sara Dolnicar, Department of Tourism, UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia
Please cite as: Knezevic Cvelbar, L., Vavpotic, D. and Dolnicar, S. (2021) Resident satisfaction with the growth of Airbnb in Ljubljana – before, during and after COVID-19, in S. Dolnicar (Ed.) Airbnb before, during and after COVID-19, University of Queensland DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14195981
Tourism development in Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, a small country located in eastern Central Europe bordering Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. Ljubljana has experienced a significant transformation as a city and tourism destination over the past decade; it developed from being a relatively small, unknown city to an award-winning European city destination, and experienced substantial growth in tourism demand. Ljubljana has always been committed to developing in an environmentally sustainable way (European Commission, 2016). As a possible consequence of this long-term strategy, it was awarded the Green EU Capital Award in 2016 (European Commission, 2016). In the last few years, Ljubljana has been named as one of the top ten most sustainable destinations in the world (Green Destinations, 2020) and has received many awards for tourism development, including: winner of the Sustainable Tourism Award in the European Capital of Smart Tourism 2019 competition (European Capital of Smart Tourism Initiative, 2020); winner of the European Union Cultural Heritage award in 2018 (Europa Nostra, 2018); and winner of the Best of Cities sustainable tourism award at ITB Berlin 2019 (Green Destinations, 2020).
Tourism demand grew significantly in Ljubljana between 2014 and 2018, with an average annual increase of 17% in overnight stays and 13% in arrivals (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2019a). This substantial increase in demand is mostly the result of improved destination management, targeted promotion in international markets, and an overall increase in international tourism demand. In 2014, tourist arrivals to Ljubljana reached 621,994 with 1.17 million overnight stays. In 2018, 1.02 million arrivals led to 2.18 million overnight stays (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2019a, see Figure 6.1) In only four years, the number of tourists in Ljubljana almost doubled.
Traditionally, Ljubljana was a business travel destination, but over the past few years its market share in the leisure market has been increasing, mostly as a consequence of promotional activities positioning Ljubljana as an innovative, lively, vivid, and year-round sustainable destination. Foreign visitors represented some 95% of total overnight stays between 2014 and 2018 (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, 2019a), with key in