These Smoky Mountain towns rank among nation’s top places for new Airbnb listings
If you’re looking to escape to a retreat in the Great Smoky Mountains, you may be in luck.
Two towns near the national park were among the nation’s hottest places for new Airbnbs, the short-term rental company said Monday in a news release.
Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, both in Tennessee, made the list after Airbnb said it studied the U.S. cities with the “largest percentage increase in the number of active listings” from March 2020 to June 2021. The findings mirror a national trend.
“Airbnb has seen increases in supply in the regions that are most popular with guests: active listings in non-urban areas in (Quarter 1 of) 2021 increased almost 30% from the same period in 2019,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to McClatchy News.
The rankings come as AAA expects millions of drivers to hit the road for the Fourth of July weekend.
Nationwide, Airbnb said its users have been spending time with family as more people get vaccinated and states lift coronavirus-related shutdowns. Travelers are also thinking about heading to beaches and other destinations with outdoor activities.
Earlier in the pandemic, the travel website TripAdvisor said it saw a rise in searches for outdoor vacation spots as states ordered restrictions to help stop the spread of COVID-19, McClatchy News reported.
It’s not the first time Smoky Mountains tourist spots have gotten national recognition during the pandemic.
In January, TripAdvisor ranked Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge among its trendiest travel destinations of 2020. Though some data was captured before the pandemic, it revealed the two towns saw some of the biggest jumps in positive ratings from visitors.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies along Tennessee’s border with North Carolina. In 2020, it welcomed more than 12 million people, making it the most-visited U.S. site that’s designated as a national park, officials said.
In the recent Airbnb report, the company said searches are rising for vacations in neighboring Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi, among other states.
Overall, other cities seeing the highest increases in listings were: Alexandria, Virginia; Branson, Missouri; Jordan Valley, Oregon; Keystone, Colorado; Port Aransas, Texas; Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Tampa, Florida.
