Airbnb CEO says travel never going back to the way it was before pandemic
Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky on Thursday predicted travel would permanently change due to the pandemic with people seeking out thousands of smaller cities and spending more time visiting friends and family.
Traditional tourism and sightseeing at top global destinations would be significantly reduced by travelers who will drive to smaller communities and fly less for business meetings.
Travelers are "yearning for what was taken away from them," Chesky said at the Reuters Next conference in an interview with Jonathan Weber, Reuters global technology editor. "They're not yearning to see Times Square. What they are yearning to do is to see their friends and their families they have not seen in a long time."
The startup was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and its business dropped by 80% in a little over eight weeks.
