Language-bed exchange?
Sharing economy is an economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else, not fully utilized all the time. Using online platform such as SNS, the sharing economy is growing rapidly and changing the way we buy and use products and services in several industries. Tourism is not an exception and Air B&B and Uber are changing already established hierarchies. While traveling, we all experienced how language is important to communicate and it is not without reason the existence of proverb ‘As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being’. Since last March, a new service is born offering exchange between language and accommodation. (EDO)
Edouard Tripkovic Katayama Advisory Consultant
Practice is the best way to learn a foreign language and Talktalkbnb offers a new concept of shearing economy combining travel and language. It is a new platform born in France in March 2016 connecting people who want to learn languages with people who want to travel the world. Concept is based on host offering accommodation free of charge to traveller and gets opportunity to practice a language with a native-speaker at home. Traveller benefits not only free accommodation but also a contact with locals which allow discovering the destination much more than mass tourism offers. Kids, Families, Couples, Singles, Students…everyone can join the platform and it is totally free of charge. Having a large majority of women subscribers and desiring a safe and comfortable site for everyone, option ‘Women only’ limit to be contacted only by other women.
TalkTalkbnb is a clever alternative to traditional accommodation giving opportunity to save money and make friends, while it helps hosts to learn a language. In 6 months more than 15,000 users registered: hosts in 60 countries and travellers offering around 60 languages.
Japan is experiencing big increase of foreign tourist arrivals and accommodation is often pointed as an important issue to continue existing trend. Accommodation based shared economies might a partial solution and also contribute to Japanese people’s globalization.
Source: Talktalkbnb
