We have talked a good talk about promoting community tourism as a means of increasing our share of the travel industry pie. Now there is a powerful ally in Airbnb, a modern online marketing company which is bringing visitors to stay in hitherto unconventional places.

Airbnb is removing the usual constraints, mainly a lack of resources to do promotion, and the results are showing. Based on figures from the tourism ministry, the home-sharing accommodation service here has some 2,300 active hosts and 4,000 active listings scattered across the island, and the market is growing.Last year, an estimated 32,000 visitors came to Jamaica through Airbnb, with some choosing to stay in, of all places, Trench Town and Denham Town, crime-ridden communities in Western Kingston, as well as Portmore, St Catherine. Who would want to vacation in the inner city, some might ask.The reality is that tourists do not all fit in one mould. Many have more needs than for sun, sand, and sea, the typical tourism products. Trench Town, for example, will draw fans of Jamaica’s Bob Marley, whose music has its cradle in the squalid conditions of that community where the poor and indigent had no voice or social recognition.There is an annual celebration of Marley’s colleague, Mr Peter Tosh, which brings large numbers of people to Farm in Westmoreland. If we play our cards right, we might have good numbers of sporting fans who wish to visit Trelawny, home of the fastest man on Earth, Mr Usain Bolt, and even the oldest living human being, Mrs Violet Mosse Brown.As we heard from Mr Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the Sandals founder and chairman of this newspaper in his embrace of the company in Sunday’s edition of the Jamaica Observer, Airbnb makes it possible for ordinary people to make extra money, if they have a safe, clean room or rooms in a well-cared home, by listing it with the over three million lodging listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries being managed by Airbnb.On the other end of the spectrum, Jamaicans looking to vacation overseas on a tight budget have many options to rent apartments, hotel rooms, villas, and the like along a price continuum which suits their pockets, only needing a mobile phone or tablet to book.Not unexpectedly, the new tourism concept is seen as a threat by some traditionalists in the hospitality market who fear that it would drive down prices and hurt the tourism product. Some have taken the company to court in countries like the United States where it originated, and Australia, for example.Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association President Omar Robinson’s point about ensuring the integrity of the tourism product by delivering what is offered on the Airbnb site and ensuring that visitors are safe is well taken.The endorsement of Airbnb by Mr Stewart, who is apparently not worried about the competition it offers, and Tourism Minister Mr Edmund Bartlett who has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the company, will encourage Jamaicans to look twice at this phenomenally successful innovation.This will certainly test how serious our communities are about attracting visitors and sharing in the tourism pie.