A cura di @Billy Pilgrim.

Come riporta Fast Company, Airbnb pagherà un alloggio e spese mensili fino a $ 1.000 a quattro persone che decideranno di passare quattro mesi a Grottole, un piccolo borgo in provincia di Matera.

L’iniziativa si chiama “The Italian Sabbatical“, ed è frutto di una collaborazione tra Airbnb, la città di Grottole e l’associazione Wonder Grottole. Lo scopo è quello attirare l’attenzione della stampa per incoraggiare il turismo e rivitalizzare l’asfittica economica del borgo:

These initiatives generate zero revenue for Airbnb.So is it a corporate social responsibility project? A business play? With Airbnb, those topics are bewitchingly intertwined. Calcaterra declined to comment on Airbnb’s broader business strategy. But Airbnb has invested in revitalizing small cities within the past few years. Its biggest initiative to date was in building the Yoshino Cedar House, a community center and dwelling for the Yoshino District of Japan, which successfully spurred the local economy, inviting tourists to both stay and pay to try Airbnb “experiences” like making soba with locals. Airbnb seems to be using these projects as a test-bed, to assess both the viability of albergo diffuso vacations (how much revenue can be generated by scattered hotel cities on the Airbnb platform when scaled?), and the potential of fresh capital for remote communities in trouble (can tourists revitalize a small town without ruining it?).

Immagine da Flickr – Basilicata Turistica.