Mich Goh on listening her way through hostile hearings, and what governments across APAC actually want when they talk about short-term rentals
Every APAC market wants something different from tourism, and that’s the challenge Mich Goh (Director of Public Policy, APAC, Airbnb) has built her career around. In rural Japan, the goal is getting empty homes back into circulation. In Goa, it’s training women hosting in the hinterlands to capture more of the tourism dollars already flowing through the state. “Everyone’s trying to do a slightly different thing,” Mich explains, “and for me, it’s really trying to figure out what exactly is the government trying to do.” That instinct, listen first, prescribe later, shows up across an eight-country study she cites, where 89% of travellers said they’d already ventured beyond big cities in the past year, and 91% planned to do it again. The demand for regional and rural travel isn’t a new trend anymore, but the real question is who’s ready to receive it.
That question of readiness is where things get interesting and where Mich’s approach to skeptics comes in. Rather than walking into a room and defending short-term rentals, she starts by asking what’s actually bothering people. “What is the outcome that you’re trying to achieve? What is the problem that you’re trying to solve for?” It sounds almost too simple, but it’s the same instinct that shapes her read on where travel is headed over the next five years – a shift from ticking off landmarks to actually feeling a place. “It’s not about what you see when you travel to a location,” she says, “it’s about how that place makes you feel.”
But the story that sticks with her most didn’t happen in a boardroom, it happened in Putrajaya, Malaysia, at a packed public consultation with residents, condo management, hotel operators, and a room full of people who’d had enough of short-term rentals showing up in their buildings. Mich knew within seconds of walking in that the temperature was high.
What she did next, and how it changed the room, is the part worth watching for yourself.
