Airbnb recognizes positive impact on formality with 2020 reforms

The data shows that “85% of tourist decisions occur before reaching the destination,” including food, transportation, recreation and other options where to spend their money, explained Cólin Ávila.

And the objective of collaborative economy platforms is that “spending per tourist is distributed increasingly in more hands,” he said during the second Business Summit of Commerce, Services and Tourism Leaders, in Nayarit.

In this way, small and medium-sized companies can compete in terms of exposure of their services with large, already consolidated companies.

In addition, tourist destinations are increasingly diverse, outside of the more centralized traditional ones. In CDMX, for example, “we have experienced the highest peaks (in occupancy) with F1, Day of the Dead and Corona Capital.” And not only the traditional tourist neighborhoods, such as Roma or La Condesa, are filled, but also other less traditional ones, such as Iztacalco. And that allows them to generate a significant income and boost spending in local businesses,” he indicated.

A more appropriate reform is expected in the Uber case. During the conference on digital platforms to promote SMEs, the issue of the reform initiative to provide social protection to delivery drivers on platforms such as Uber Eats was also addressed.

In this regard, Nicolás Sánchez Sepúlveda, director of Government Affairs and Policies at Uber México, asked the authorities to rethink the reform outside of traditional and rigid labor models, where workers are seen as “a subordinate” to strict schedules.

He explained that the data reveals that “60% of users (workers of platforms such as Uber Eats) connect two hours a day on average” or 10 hours a week.

Which makes it impossible to implement social protection laws designed for traditional models, without sacrificing the conditions of flexibility that exist in the platform.

“These initiatives do not seek to regulate companies, but rather the people who benefit from these platforms,” who are very diverse, from students to mothers and caregivers looking to generate extra income.

The executive advocated rethinking the reform taking into account social protection models that have been implemented in countries like Chile, where access to these rights could be combined with the flexibility offered by digital platforms.

Finally, both Uber Eats and Airbnb said they were ready to face the challenge of the World Cup. To do this, they see various growth opportunities, not only in lodging and moving people, but in the impact on different types of businesses.

Airbnb, for example, would be venturing more into issues of regenerative tourism, diversification of tourist destinations at the local level and the promotion of artisans and businesses in the creative industry.

Uber Eats, for its part, explained that the growth of the gastronomic offer still has a lot of potential, since “only 61% of SMEs are using technological platforms (…) and in the world of restaurants, 90 % are not yet on board with technology,” revealed Sánchez Sepúlveda.