Airbnb is using what3words to list stays with Mongolian nomads www.techcrunch.com

Putting a new spin on the term “digital nomad,” U.K. addressing platform what3words has partnered with Airbnb to list stays with Mongolian nomads.

The startup’s simplified addressing system is being applied to help adventurous travelers “home share” with Dukha reindeer herders at their mountain camp where there aren’t any street names to anchor a trip.

The partnership is slated as supporting sustainable tourism by helping the tribe tap into a new revenue stream to support its traditional way of life.

Earlier this year, Airbnb signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia to use home sharing as a route for economic empowerment and community development. “The MOU will see both parties provide hospitality training for current hosts, as well as potential hosts in rural and remote areas, to encourage the adoption of new digital technology for tourism,” they note in a press release today.

The Airbnb listing with the Dukha reindeer herders offers the chance to stay in a teepee in the Taiga forest in Northern Mongolia, with guests getting “two wooden beds, sleeping bags and an open-fire stove for heating and cooking, as well as full access to the reindeer tribe’s backyard.”

So definitely not the usual Airbnb fare.

what3word comes into play as a neat tool because guests are asked to meet the nomadic tribe at a previously communicated three-word address at the edge of the forest.

what3word’s platform chunks the world into 57 trillion 3-by-3 meter squares — each of which has been assigned three words to act as its easier-to-share pinpoint. Using unique combinations of words for geolocation reduces the risk of confusing two similar-sounding street names, for example, and means a location can easily be shared verbally or read at a glance.

After meeting their hosts at the forest edge, guests ascend with them to the mountain to the camp — located at ///evaluate.video.nails — either on reindeer or by horse.

what3words addressing platform used to pinpoint a nomadic tribe’s Airbnb listing in Mongolia

Travelers can then expect to be “immersed in the day-to-day life of the tribe, from herding and milking reindeer to cooking traditional Mongolian dishes and making handicrafts,” they add.

The tribe uses a co-host in an urban location to manage the process of updating their Airbnb listing with a new three-word address, as needed (i.e. when they shift the location of their camp).

Commenting on the partnership in a statement, Cameron Sinclair, social innovation lead at Airbnb, said: “Airbnb is excited to partner with what3words and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia to drive sustainable tourism and economic empowerment, while promoting the unique hospitality and culture so intrinsic to the country.

“In Mongolia, a lack of traditional street addressing and nomadic way of life have prevented locals from welcoming Airbnb guests into their homes. Our partnership delivers an innovative way to provide hosts with an accurate and reliable address while constantly on the move, and creates new livelihood opportunities for nomadic and rural communities in Mongolia and around the world.”

A spokeswoman for what3words confirmed the partnership is limited to Mongolia for now — but added it’s “exploring next steps with Airbnb” in the hopes of expanding the collaboration.

There’s no financial component to the arrangement as yet because what3words is free for individuals to use (so in this case the Dukha reindeer herders).

But the startup does sell b2b licenses for other products, including its API and SDKs — offering optional extras like very large-scale batch conversion of three-word addresses to GPS coordinates or vice versa.

So if Airbnb sees enough value in ramping up offers of alternative tourist experiences on its platform — and in what3words’ three-word address system as the easiest way to grease and thus scale that pipe — it could end up sending something more than a bit of publicity the startup’s way.

That’s clearly what3words’ hope.

“what3words is incredibly useful for guests trying to find their Airbnb — be it in the centre of Madrid, or the on the Mongolian Steppe,” the spokeswoman told us. “We’re already seeing many hosts provide guests with their 3 word address, and we’d love to make the process as seamless as possible.”

One growth headwind for Airbnb’s business could work in what3words’ favor because the home-sharing platform may well need to invest in finding innovative and sustainable routes to grow its business, given a growing backlash against overtourism in popular destination cities that have been saddled with the real-world impacts of homes being repurposed as de facto hotels (and travel generally being more affordable).

In recent years residents in cities where Airbnb is popular have been vocal in complaining that such platforms bring problems — from antisocial impacts such as noise and drunken partying to more structural issues as they contribute to driving up rents by removing housing stock, with the risk of undermining local communities if residents get priced out.

And a growing number of cities have responded to these concerns by tightening regulations on home-sharing — throwing up blockers and sometimes hard caps on Airbnb’s growth.

A requirement that hosts register with the city in San Francisco so it can enforce vacation-rental laws to prevent homes being repurposed as year-round tourist lets led to a dramatic decline in Airbnb listings at the start of this year, for example.

But it looks to be the opposite story in Mongolia where politicians are focused on development and keen to attract outside investment. And where tourists are — at least for now — welcome visitors.

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Legislator of Mongolia's ruling party submits proposal on dismissing government www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian legislator Damdin Khayankhyarvaa submitted a proposal Monday on dismissing the state government in connection with a scandal involving financial irregularities by some members of parliament and government.

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Habitability of Mongolia under threat from climate change www.adelaidenow.com.au

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The Surprise Fuel Flows Sparked by a Raging U.S.-China Trade War www.bloomberg.com

A Southeast Asian nation that was a bit player in the biofuel market is suddenly buying and selling unprecedented supplies. The U.S.-China trade war may have something to do with it.

Malaysia has emerged to displace the U.S. as the biggest supplier of ethanol to China in just two months. It’s also the first time the Southeast Asian country is selling such significant volumes to the world’s top consumer. At the same time, it’s buying a record amount of the fuel from America.

The hook? The shift occurred after President Xi Jinping imposed tariffs on U.S. ethanol imports in retaliation to American counterpart Donald Trump’s duties on Chinese goods. While the two countries apply tit-for-tat levies, shipments from Malaysia to China are tax free.

The dispute between the world’s two largest economies has roiled markets from consumer goods to soybeans, but rarely has a completely new player emerged to fill in a supply gap. The sudden spike in the flows in and out of Malaysia has taken traders by surprise, according to Heather Zhang, a Singapore-based analyst who follows the global biofuel industry at researcher PRIMA.

“It’s an interesting opportunity,” Zhang said. “It shows some merchants are enthusiastic in their effort to generate profitability and adapt to change in the international trading environment during this unusual trade war event.”

Questionable Demand
There is no significant production or use of fuel ethanol in Malaysia, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report in October last year. It’s not produced commercially as the feedstock is expensive to transport, and it’s also excluded as a source of alternative fuel under the Southeast Asian nation’s biofuel policy, according to the USDA.

For China, demand for the renewable fuel is growing after the world’s largest automobile market announced an ambitious plan to expand the use of ethanol gasoline for vehicles nationwide by 2020. Weaning itself off from U.S. biofuel may be a challenge it struggles to meet given the lack of domestic production capacity, as well as higher prices from suppliers elsewhere.

How Much?
Malaysia bought about 97 million liters of ethanol this year from the U.S., mostly in August and September, for a total $35 million, or 36 cents a liter, according to the USDA.

China purchased a total 88 million liters of ethanol, labeled as ethyl alcohol in import data, during August and September from Malaysia, compared with zero inbound shipments in the first seven months of this year. The total value of the purchase reported to Chinese authorities was about $49 million, or 56 cents a liter.

Meanwhile, shipments from America to China plunged to just over 13 thousand liters in the quarter ended Sept. 30. China’s price per liter for U.S. ethanol was about 44 cents a liter. Now that would be subject to tariffs including a 25 percent levy imposed in July, a 15 percent tax adopted in April, and a 30 percent tariff on all ethanol imports. The prices reported to Chinese customs and the USDA exclude duties.

While a direct transfer of U.S. ethanol via Malaysia to China would be in breach of China’s tariff rules, the product can be labeled as originating in the Southeast Asian nation if it’s blended with at least 40 percent locally produced fuel before the resale. China already offers preferential levies to qualified products originating from ASEAN countries including Malaysia, and is also looking to finalize a 16-nation trade bloc deal in 2019.

“The market is curious whether the flow will persist and eventually develop Southeast Asia as a sustainable emerging hub,” Zhang said.

Still, some market participants have raised red flags over the sustainability of the new flows, according to a PRIMA report in August. They suspect there is not enough ethanol production capacity in Malaysia for such a trade to seem legitimately viable for long, PRIMA said, cited industry discussions.

“The industry understands that ethanol production in Malaysia is limited, and the country doesn’t consume ethanol either,” Zhang said. “This change has subverted many people’s perception of the fundamentals.”

Mongolia’s coal exports in first 10 months up 10pc www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR (Xinhua) – Mongolia’s coal exports in the first ten months of the year totalled 31.3 million tonnes, up 10 per cent year on year, official statistics showed Saturday.