Iceland Monitor – Airbnb’s “harmful” Iceland ad campaign

September 1, 2016
Airbnb could be using Iceland as a testing ground for an active Google advertising campaign – with negative social repercussions for locals, says a tourism studies expert. Hermann Valsson has been monitoring Google adverts for accommodation in Iceland for the past six years. He recently conducted an experiment where he searched for ‘hotel reykjavik’ as if he were searching in the ten countries from which Iceland receives most tourists. Airbnb adverts appeared on the first page of results when Valsson computer was set to Denmark and the Netherlands, clearly showing that Airbnb has begun paying for Google adverts for searches for accommodation in Iceland….
Source: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/09/01/airbnb_s_harmful_iceland_ad_campaign/