Redai dili (Aug 2023)
Alienation and Harmonization-Practice Models of Airbnbification: A Case Study of Overseas Chinese Guesthouses in Fiji and Vanuatu
Abstract
Short-term rentals are the primary drivers of transnational mobility for gentrifiers in the 21st-century. Airbnbification, pioneered by transnational hosts, has emerged in two Pacific small island developing states: Fiji and Vanuatu. Analyzing Airbnbification models driven by transnational hosts in Fiji and Vanuatu is necessary to explore the heterogeneity and internal logic of the social composition of the short-term rental market in marginal areas. Based on the transnational gentrification perspective, this study explores Airbnbification in Pacific small island developing states through an online survey and in-depth interviews with overseas Chinese hosts in Fiji and Vanuatu. The results show the following: 1) Based on assets (the position of hosts on the asset-based social scale; the function of the property and ability to benefit from holding the property) and rent gap (rising potential ground rent by the redevelopment of property), four actors-the amateur, the self-employed, the investor, and the professional hosts-have been identified. The continuum of deviation, dissociation, adaptation, and integration was mapped, showing heterogeneity in group attributes, behavioral intentions, and practical actions. The amateur and the self-employed hosts maintain an intermediate position within the social stratification system and the related consumption patterns by managing their housing assets in "long-term-let (loans) to short-term-let." Investor hosts are immobile transnational elites under the Belt and Road Initiative. Instead of adopting a buy-to-leave investment strategy, they are directly or indirectly involved in the operation and management of guesthouses, but with unsatisfactory returns. The professional host uses collective land provided by local chiefs for guesthouse development, construction, and operation and management, without changing land property rights or involving land sales and leases; they share the proceeds according to the operating income, drive indigenous people to operate guesthouses, and promote the local short-term rental market. 2) Transnational hosts are dynamic participants of Airbnbification, maintaining middle-class status or even achieving an upward transition by property ownership or usufruct, demonstrating democratization of the asset-based economy supported by digital platforms, which does not induce direct last-resident displacement, questioning the use of direct displacement as an important core concept of Airbnbification or even gentrification. 3) Short-term rentals in the Pacific small island developing states are relatively low, and short-term rental platforms, to some extent, realize the sharing economy and are gradually moving towards non-standard online accommodation agents. This study explores Airbnbification in two highly tourist-dependent economies not yet affected by over-tourism, goes beyond the typical Western context, clarifies the role of transnational hosts in Airbnbification, and improves its study. It elaborates on the similarities and differences in Airbnbification between Pacific small island developing states and developed countries in Europe and the United States, expanding the Airbnbification theory and contributing to its localization.
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