Airbnb CEO predicts heap of hurt for global tourism: 'Travel will never, ever go back to the way it was'

Airbnb's CEO is predicting that global travel, especially for vacations, won't recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Brian Chesky, who also co-founded the home-sharing company, based his gloomy forecast on shifting business and consumer trends -- from virtual meetings to family trips nearer to home.

"I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID; it just won't," Chesky told Axios in a Zoom interview. "There are sometimes months when decades of transformation happen."

Citing Airbnb data, Chesky said people aren't flying for either work or pleasure. They are driving, although not to major cities but to smaller towns fewer than 200 miles away, he said.

"They're staying in homes and they're staying longer," Chesky told Axios of the travelers who are driving to their destinations.

International travel has taken the biggest hit in the months since the infection began spreading around the world, Airbnb numbers show.

Not long ago, Chesky said, tourists flew to "50 to 100" cities -- the European capitals of Rome, Paris and London, for example.

"I think that's going to get smaller as a percentage of travel in the future, and I think it's going to get somewhat displaced, or at least balanced, by people visiting smaller communities," he said.

Chesky also isn't too cheery about travel for business meetings and conventions.

"I think a lot of people are going to realize they don't need to get on an airplane to have a meeting," he told Axios. "I mean, I met you in an office, but now we're on Zoom."

The $2 trillion Cares Act stimulus package passed in March provided roughly $50 billion to the airline industry and helped larger hotel chains pay their staffs. USA Today reported.

San Francisco-based Airbnb had to secure $2 billion from institutional investors , the Wall Street Joural reported. The company also cut 25% of its workforce.