Lam is busy with the Preparation for the next Airbnb visit to the Olympic Refugee Team training camp in Kenya

To further the Airbnb partnership with the International Olympic Committee, the International Refugee Team Training Center in Ngong, Kenya is happy to announce preparations for the second Airbnb virtual visit, an hour-long tour of the training facility led by World Marathon champion Ambassador Tegla Loroupe and Olympians from the Refugee Team who participated in the Rio Olympics.

This is how the IOC describes the partnership:

SUPPORT FOR REFUGEE ATHLETES Airbnb will also support the IOC in continuing to address the challenges faced by refugees around the world. The IOC has a long-standing commitment to refugees, including cooperation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) since 1994, the creation of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and the creation of the Olympic Refugee Foundation in 2017. Airbnb has been supporting refugee initiatives since 2015 through its “Open Homes” programme, which connects generous hosts with those in need of temporary accommodation, including refugees. To date, more than 35,000 people have been housed in times of need. Over the course of the partnership, the IOC and Airbnb will establish further programmes to provide long-term support to refugees.

Airbnb has previously supported the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 as a domestic sponsor. A recent World Economic Forum study found that during the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the additional capacity provided to visitors to Rio through Airbnb’s platform was equivalent to 257 hotels, saving the city in terms of materials use and carbon emissions, while also providing approximately USD 30 million in direct revenue for hosts and generating an estimated total economic activity of USD 100 million in three weeks. Similarly, during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Airbnb hosts earned a collective USD 2.3 million in income providing accommodation to 15,000 visitors who would have required 46 hotels. And most recently, in Japan, Airbnb hosts across the country welcomed more than 650,000 travellers during the Rugby World Cup period, earning more than USD 70 million in host income.