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The Airbnb CEO predicted on Thursday that travelers would start looking for smaller cities rather than larger cities in the future due to the coronavirus pandemic.
CEO Brian Chesky said more people will choose to drive to small communities and spend more time visiting family and friends than traveling to big cities for sightseeing. He also predicted that people would use air travel less for business meetings, according to Reuters.
Travel declined during the coronavirus pandemic, as stay-at-home orders and social distancing warrants forced people around the world to stay at home. Many Americans have refrained from seeing family and friends for fear of spreading or contracting the virus from loved ones.
Chesky said that people “long for what has been taken from them.”
“They don’t want to see Times Square,” Chesky said in an interview with the Reuters Next conference. “What they aspire to do is see their friends and families that they haven’t seen for a long time.”
At the start of the pandemic, Airbnb’s business fell 80% in nearly eight weeks, according to the outlet. However, after more cities began to ease restrictions and reopen businesses, the company began to see more travelers booking homes rather than hotels.
Many of those home rentals were in small towns as opposed to larger towns, Reuters reported.
Airbnb recently announced that it will cancel reservations made in Washington, DC during President-elect Week Joe bidenJoe BidenCotton: Senate lacks power to hold impeachment trial once Trump steps down Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will present articles of impeachment against Biden’s acting director ICE resigns weeks after entering in functionInauguration of the continuation of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
The service has banned those linked to last week’s violent riot on Capitol Hill from renting on its platform.
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