The backlash against Airbnb
失寵的愛彼迎
If Uber was the terrible toddler of the sharing economy, Airbnb, which celebrates its tenth anniversary next month, behaved as the quieter older sibling. Uber preached (and practised) disruption and chaos, and generally lost its scraps with regulators in Europe. But Airbnb spun a gentler tale of tourists swapping the anonymity of hotels for the authenticity of districts.?
如果說優步是共享經濟下誕生的幼兒，還在蹣跚學步的話，那下個月就要迎來十周歲生日的愛彼迎，言行舉止看上去像是文靜的姐姐。優步像它自己宣傳的那樣，妨礙著公共秩序并制造著混亂，和歐洲監管者的斗智斗勇也基本以失敗告終。但愛彼迎編織了一段更溫馨的故事：游客們放棄了原本毫無個性特征的酒店，轉而去感受原汁原味的地方特色。
But tourists packing for this year's holiday season might brace themselves for an awkward welcome. From Amsterdam to Berlin to Madrid, city officials are tightening the screws, limiting the number of days for which an apartment may be rented and slapping fines on violators.
但是，為了今年的度假時光而收拾行李的旅客們，可能要撞上尷尬的歡迎了。從阿姆斯特丹到柏林再到馬德里，市政官員正在加強管制，限制租用公寓的天數，并對違規者罰款。
Yet the platform can hardly be blamed for every woe of the mass-tourism age. In contrast to the cruise-ship hordes that have made the centres of Venice and Dubrovnik unbearable, Airbnbers by definition stay in a city. There is some evidence that Airbnb encourages new trips or at least lengthens existing ones, which suggests tourists are spending cash that would otherwise have stayed at home.?
然而，這個旅游平臺并不應該為大眾旅游時代的每一個禍患承擔罪責。 相比乘船游覽的人們把威尼斯和杜布羅夫尼克的市中心弄得不堪重負，使用愛彼迎的人們本質上仍然停留在一座城市。有一些跡象表明，愛彼迎的確能鼓勵更多的人走出家門看看世界，或者至少讓旅客們多在外游玩一些時日。這意味著那些原本存在家里的錢，都會被旅客們用來買買買。
“Great hotels have always been…mirrors to the particular societies they serve,” wrote Joan Didion, a Californian author. Airbnb highlights a quirk of our own age, in which the thirst for the authentic can come at the expense of the locals who are supposed to provide it. Your columnist is among those who have found themselves turning away from Airbnb’s ersatz authenticity in favour of hotels that do not aspire to be anything other than what they are.
“一直以來，優質的酒店就像一面鏡子，映照出它們服務的群體。”加州作家瓊·迪迪恩寫道。愛彼迎反映了我們時代的一樁怪事，要表達對真實體驗的渴求，就要將當地人作為犧牲品，可這些人原本是能夠為旅客提供這種體驗的。 筆者為伍的則是這樣一群人，我們拋棄了愛彼迎虛假的真實感，轉而投向酒店的懷抱，酒店不打著什么旗號，只是安安靜靜地做個酒店而已。
—————? 文章來源 / 經濟學人
重點詞匯
backlash/?b?kl??/
n. 強烈抵制
sibling/?s?bl??/
n. 兄弟姐妹
preach/pri?t?/
v. 鼓吹
scrap/skr?p/
n. 斗爭
anonymity/??n??n?m?ti/
n. 毫無個性特征
brace/bre?s/
v. 為...做準備
screw/skru?/
n. 螺絲
woe/wo?/
n. 禍患
horde/h??rd/
n. 一大群人
Dubrovnik/d?'br?:vnik/
n. 杜布羅夫尼克（克羅地亞東南部港口城市）
quirk/kw??rk/
n. 怪癖
ersatz/?ersɑ?ts/
adj. 虛假的；刻意的
aspire/??spa??r/
v. 希望；渴望
e.g.
We aspire to become full-service providers to our clients.
拓展內容
國外媒體 Vocativ 關于歐洲城市抵制過度旅游業的報道
文中比較特殊的抽象名詞作主語/賓語的情況：
practice and preach disruption and chaos
swap the anonymity for the authenticity
encourage new trips or lengthen existing ones
the thirst for the authentic can come at the cost of...
講解例句：
Mexico has descended into corruption, poverty and chaos.
