Fans of Vice Media’s edgy style of journalism will soon have the opportunity to embark on a series of Vice-approved travel adventures around the world.
Vice announced a new partnership with lodging rental website Airbnb on Monday that will involve the two companies offering travel packages selected by Vice, starting with an online contest that will send 100 people on one of four free custom-made tours in South Africa, Paris, New York, or Tokyo.
Between August 14 and September 1, Airbnb will accept written entries for the contest, with each winner of a Vice-Airbnb “experience” receiving one ticket to one of the travel packages, including round-trip airfare to one of the four cities, where they’ll get three nights accommodation in an Airbnb home. The travel packages being offered to contest entrants range from three days in the electronic music scene of Cape Town to a tour of Tokyo’s LGBTQ culture.
Should Airbnb offer more Vice-organized travel tours after the current contest ends, it would do so for a fee, with the millennial-friendly media company receiving advertising money from Airbnb for promoting the “experiences” as part of that partnership, The Wall Street Journal notes. Vice’s focus on global journalism, which includes travel guides online and on television, makes the media company “uniquely situated to curate authentic Airbnb Experiences that are inspired by Vice’s most beloved and cutting edge content,” the companies said in a statement.
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The travel packages are nothing new for Airbnb, as the website currently offers users more than 2,500 different “experiences” in over 35 cities after launching its Trips service, offering tours and curated activities, in fall 2016.
Meanwhile, the partnership marks Vice’s latest effort to branch out from its core digital and TV media business. Vice kicked off 2017 by debuting a global ad agency, called Virtue Worldwide, and the company has since partnered with companies such as athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica on branding deals. Vice has also been experimenting with developing short-form video content for services such as Snapchat and, earlier this summer, the company even debuted a meal kit delivery line named after the media brand’s Munchies food vertical.
Vice has been raising more money from investors as the company looks ahead to a potential initial public offering. In June, the company raised another $450 million from private equity firm TPG in a deal that boosted Vice’s valuation to $5.7 billion.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to include the fact that the companies have not announced a definite plan for Airbnb to offer future Vice-curated travel experiences for a fee once the current contest ends.
