Today (17th July) marks the final day of the Airbnb and Babbel Tour d’Europe. The experimental language crash course disembarks after a linguistic fuelled few days.   

Airbnb and language-learning app Babbel have recently joined forces to change the way people learn languages. Playing on their combined expertise and innovation, then using their combined travel industry weight – the Tour d’Europe was born.

airbnb and babbel - compeloProduction crew documented the journey of lucky competition winners across the iconic European cities, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and Berlin.

The adventurers will be staying in specially selected locations, provided by Airbnb, in each of the chosen destinations. Here comes the tricky part – or the easy part if Babbel has anything to do with it.

Thankfully, with this, Babbel has everything to do with it. The contestants will learn the local languages with the help of the Babbel app and the results will be documented.

airbnb and babbel - compelo

According to a study, Babbel is the quickest way to be able to chat in real life conversations. In fact, 73% of its users indicated that they would be able to have a short, simple conversation in their new language within five hours of using Babbel.

airbnb and babbel - compelo

So this challenge should be a breeze. Right?

Ambient Insight, a data research company, revealed the mobile language-learning market will be worth $14.5 billion by the year 2019. James McClure, Airbnb’s General Manager in Northern Europe told Compelo: “We conducted research which found that, while people want to culturally embed themselves in the places they visit and interact in the local language, a lack of fundamental linguistics means that many are left frustrated.

“Our Trips platform is all about encouraging travellers to truly immerse themselves in the destinations they visit and live like a local through our Experiences. A partnership with Babbel is a natural way to further this aim and tackle the potential barriers of language head on. Our aim is to inspire travellers to challenge themselves to go beyond their natural comfort zone in search of a more authentic travel experience.”

Both Airbnb and Babel will be co-releasing fascinating data from the project around perceptions and habits of travel and language.airbnb and babbel - compelo

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