Only three home exchange clubs have over 10,000 listings. I belong to two of them because one is stronger on domestic listings and the other has a greater proportion of listings in foreign countries.
The more international club has 2,000 swap homes located in my own country, the US. That is one home listing for every 120,000 US residents. Of course, some people list more than one home and each home contains an average of three people.
No matter how you analyze these figures, it is clear that home exchange is a truly fringe activity. There just are not that many Americans who understand what home exchange is, and there are far fewer who actually do it.
Of course, everything is relative.
The same swap club with 2,000 American listings has exchange homes available in China. By any criteria, China is a large country. It has 1.3 billion citizens, or approximately 5 times as many people as the United States.
The big swap club has exactly 16 exchange homes listed in China. Almost all of them are in the capital city, Beijing, and their owners are, to a person, ex-patriots.
Bad example, I hear you say. Why would a Chinese-speaker join an English-based home exchange club? China, further, is a developing economy. Its citizens may lack the resources and, in fact, the right, to do independent international travel.
Alright, let's look at another large country, one where citizens have a higher per capita income, English skills and greater individual liberty.
India is also, objectively, a large country. With over a billion citizens, it is just a fraction smaller than China. There are 90 million English speakers in India, meaning there more people in India who speak English as there are citizens of the United Kingdom and Canada combined.
The biggest swap club has a total of 8 listings in India. The second largest club has six.
Clearly, home exchange is not a world-wide phenomenon. What does that mean for you?
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