Amsterdam has a higher ratio of tourists to residents than Florence, Italy, the researchers report. The number of overnight visitor stays reached almost 16 million in 2017, up from 8 million in 2008. Meanwhile, the short-term rental market—80 percent of it on the Airbnb platform—was nonexistent in 2008 but later surged to more than one of every 20 rental units citywide. In some central neighborhoods, the ratio was one out of five.
The researchers calculate that as tourism and Airbnb offerings rose, so did housing costs, but some residents gained a net benefit from the amenities that tourism attracted. For single people and young families, the new amenities offset the increase in housing prices. Older families, meanwhile, tended to leave neighborhoods heavily influenced by tourism, and the researchers inferred that they moved at least in part because they didn’t care for the new businesses.
This demographic movement can reduce…
