Seoul, Airbnb team up to turn stay-at-home moms into hospitality entrepreneurs

As Korea rides a historic wave of international tourism — projected to draw an unprecedented 19 million foreign visitors this year — municipal officials are turning to the digital economy to solve a persistent domestic challenge: bringing women back into the workforce. The Seoul Foundation of Women and Family announced a joint public-private initiative with the city’s Women’s Resources Development Center and Airbnb to launch the third year of its specialized Shared Accommodation Host Training Program. The project specifically targets “career-interrupted” women — stay-at-home mothers and professionals who left the workforce to care for family — leveraging home-sharing platforms as a flexible runway back to financial independence. In a local culture where rigid, arduous corporate environments often force women out of the job market after childbirth, digital hospitality offers an appealing alternative, as running a boutique guesthouse allows women to manage an enterprise on their own schedules. The program has seen explosive demand since its inception. A modest pilot project in