LinkedIn X Facebook Email Gift Decision Intelligence Photo Credit: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky at Skift Global Forum 2026. Skift
Major experiences players market to travelers, not locals. Can Airbnb be the exception to the rule?
Airbnb has gone through several false starts with its experiences business, first launched more than a decade ago. It has relaxed its long-held resistance to high-demand mainstream tours of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. But now the question is whether it can succeed by marketing to locals — something few other experiences companies have found success with.
Airbnb relaunched experiences in 2025 and after a sluggish start, CEO Brian Chesky has said the company wanted to focus on getting one city right — Paris. The focus is paying off, Chesky said last week at the Skift Global Forum, with growth "6x year over year."
"One of the reasons they're growing is we've now started to crack locals," Chesky said. "Locals in Paris are booking experiences in Paris, something we never thought would happen, so now we're taking that playbook to New York and other cities. And I think we're not even close to that happening in 1,000 cities but I think that will happen soon."
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