PANDEMIC WILL PERMANENTLY CHANGE TRAVEL: AIRBNB CEO

Airbnb chief executive officer Brian Chesky predicts travel will permanently change due to the pandemic with people seeking out smaller cities and spending more time visiting friends and family. Traditional tourism and sightseeing at top global destinations would be significantly reduced by travellers who will drive to smaller communities and fly less for business meetings. Travelers are “yearning for what was taken away from them,” Chesky told the reuters Next conference last week. “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. However, as lockdowns eased, more travellers opted to book homes instead of hotels, helping Airbnb post a surprise profit for the third quarter.