THE DIFFUSION OF THE AIRBNB PLATFORM AND THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF TOURISM IN NATAL/RN

Abstract

With the diffusion of digital platforms in the socio-spatial dynamics of tourist places, Airbnb assumes protagonism, causing a restructuring of traditional accommodation means, incorporating new actors and promoting a new geography of tourism. In this sense, the objective of the work is to analyze how the advancement of the Airbnb platform in Natal has had an impact on the traditional lodging sector and changed the dynamics of the Natal tourist territory. In the methodological procedures, documentary and bibliographic research was used. We used information from AirDNA to capture the history of Airbnb in Natal and the Municipal Secretariat of Natal Taxation (SEMUT) in order to observe the behavior of traditional accommodations (hotels, hostels, inns and apartments-hotels) from 2019 to 2024. It was found that the traditional accommodation means suffer shrinkage, accentuating its spatial concentration in the main tourist area, while the properties registered on the Airbnb platform increase and are more dispersed in the urban fabric of Natal, demonstrating greater capillarity.