In September 2018, Airbnb hosted the Africa Travel Summit where it brought together leaders in inclusive tourism to talk about how to accelerate healthy tourism on the continent. Here's a report recapping some key Summit learnings on inclusive tourism. Some of the key learnings included the following:

• Developing a clear and mutually beneficial partnership approach was key to the success of the programme.

• One of the biggest issues in this community based tourism sector is how to build and grow demand for experiences and to ensure that hosts in these communities get sufficient interest and booking.

• Both the pilot results and input from the Innovators Programme highlighted that the AAA is likely to be more successful if it focuses on communities with high tourism potential and that there are clear criteria for participation.

Alongside the Summit Airbnb ran the inaugural "Innovators Programme". The purpose of the Innovators Programme was to hold an interactive discussion with grassroutes innovators and development organisations across Africa to learn from them and to discuss how best to scale the Airbnb Africa Academy (AAA) through partnership.

Seventeen different organisations including global partnerships such as the World Bank, NGO’s from across South Africa including Africa Ignite and WESSA, community based organisations such as Impilo Yethuas well as incubators attended the Programme representing 5 countries across the continent. These included Kenya, Morocco, Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa.