Tourism experts and analysts, according to Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, are underestimating travel’s potential, and the sector will soon experience a new “golden age of travel.”
He stated that an estimated 50% of U.S. workers might theoretically work from home on their laptops, and they would travel to get out of the house and seek human contacts.
People will leave their houses to travel and overcome loneliness, according to Chesky, if they are hooked to their screens all day. They will not only visit Las Vegas, Rome, and Paris, but will also visit some of the 100,000 locations and markets where Airbnb hopes to encourage people to vacation.
Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali interviewed Chesky on stage at the Skift Global Forum in Manhattan on Wednesday, where the Airbnb CEO discussed his vision for the next era.
In other news, Chesky said that Airbnb’s experiences business has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and that after a two-year hiatus initiated in 2020, it would receive a product update and additional investment in the coming years.
Chesky stated on an earnings call in early August that experiences will become an increasing priority once again, and they are making quite a few product investments to continue to showcase experiences. And he believe it will be a significant part of their story in 2023 and beyond over the following five years. So he’s definitely looking forward to them.
However, during the Skift Global Forum, Chesky stated that Airbnb will not enter the transportation or airline booking market. “Not anytime soon,” he predicted. One issue is because transportation is a commoditized sector that wouldn’t allow Airbnb to differentiate itself, he says.
Concerning Airbnb’s recovery from the early days of the pandemic, Chesky stated that cross-border travel has returned, with the exception of Asia, and that urban travel is strong, albeit it hasn’t and probably won’t return to pre-pandemic levels.
