Accolades received further boost promotions for Boracay tourism

The awards received by Boracay as one of the world's best beaches have further boosted the promotion of this resort island, this is according to a foreign tourism expert.

Chia Jia Jih, a Singaporean and an executive in Southeast Asia of the Airbnb, said guests have started pouring in from 67 countries around the world through their company alone.

The Puka Beach in Boracay was recently named by international media CNN as one of the 100th best beaches in the world. Several international travel firms also rated this resort island as one of the world's best including the best beach in Asia.

"Because of this, we in the Airbnb expanded our operation in the Philippines with the beginning of focused efforts in Boracay. Airbnb will focus on engaging its community in Boracay to fully develop the opportunity in this tourism hot spot," said Jih in a press conference here Thursday afternoon.

The concept of the Airbnb worldwide is to promote homestay program so that foreign tourists will truly experience the community in this resort island and around the world.

"We encourage homeowners in this resort island to register their homes for rent to us for free. We will provide free photographer to promote their homes and also suggests how to improve it. The homeowners will also be the one to decide how much will they be charging for every tourist who would want to stay in their homes while in Boracay," he said.

Currently, the Airbnb has over 1,400 local listings in the Philippines. Some 200 of them are in Boracay.

Also, the Airbnb offers hosts events and meet-ups to better support the existing community of users and grow the number of hosts here.

The Airbnb, in a statement, is considered the world market leader in unique, short-term accommodations. Last January, the company has celebrated four million guests. On any given night, over 50,000 guests are staying at Airbnb accommodations around the world.

Founded in August of 2008 in San Francisco, California, the company is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world online or from a mobile phone.