Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky has signaled a major strategic pivot for the company’s Experiences division, revealing that the platform is finding unexpected success by targeting local residents rather than just international travelers. Speaking at the Skift Global Forum 2026, Chesky detailed how a refined approach in Paris has resulted in a sixfold increase in year-over-year growth, providing a blueprint for a global rollout that includes New York City and eventually 1,000 other major urban centers. This shift marks a significant departure from the company’s original vision for Experiences, which for years focused almost exclusively on providing unique, "off-the-beaten-path" activities for travelers staying in Airbnb accommodations.
The announcement comes at a critical juncture for the San Francisco-based company as it seeks to diversify its revenue streams amid tightening regulations on short-term rentals in major markets. By successfully marketing to locals, Airbnb is entering a space that has historically proven difficult for travel-centric platforms to penetrate. The move suggests that Airbnb is no longer viewing itself merely as a lodging and travel company, but as a broader lifestyle platform capable of capturing discretionary spending from residents in their own backyards.
A Decadelong Evolution: From "Trips" to Local Lifestyle
The journey toward this current iteration of Airbnb Experiences has been characterized by several "false starts," as Chesky himself acknowledged. The platform originally launched "Trips" in 2016, an ambitious expansion that sought to bundle housing, activities, and social elements into a single user experience. At the time, the focus was on "magical" and "authentic" encounters—such as violin making in Paris or marathon running in Kenya—that were intended to contrast with the commercialized nature of traditional tourism.
However, the product struggled to achieve mass-market scale. While the "Experiences" category gained a cult following and provided high-quality content for marketing campaigns, it remained a negligible portion of Airbnb’s total bookings compared to its core lodging business. The COVID-19 pandemic further disrupted the segment, forcing a shift to Online Experiences, which saw a temporary surge in popularity but failed to maintain momentum as the world reopened.
In 2023, Airbnb took the drastic step of pausing new submissions for Experiences to "refine" the product. The relaunch in 2025 saw a more pragmatic approach. The company relaxed its long-standing resistance to mainstream, high-demand tours. Previously, Airbnb avoided listing standard tickets to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, preferring "insider" tours. The new strategy acknowledges that "mainstream" and "unique" are not mutually exclusive, allowing the platform to compete directly with established players like Viator and GetYourGuide while maintaining its signature curated feel.
The Paris Success Story: A New Playbook for Urban Markets
The decision to focus intensely on Paris as a test case has yielded what Chesky describes as a "breakthrough" in consumer behavior. Paris, traditionally one of Airbnb’s largest markets for both hosts and guests, served as the ideal laboratory to test whether the platform could appeal to residents. According to Chesky, the 6x year-over-year growth in the city was driven significantly by Parisians booking activities within their own city—a demographic the company had not previously prioritized.
"Locals in Paris are booking experiences in Paris, something we never thought would happen," Chesky told the audience at the Skift Global Forum. This trend suggests that Airbnb is successfully competing with local discovery apps and social media platforms for "weekend" or "date night" planning. The activities being booked by locals range from specialized culinary workshops and art classes to high-end wellness sessions and niche sporting events.
The success in Paris is attributed to a combination of improved search algorithms, a more diverse range of price points, and a marketing strategy that emphasizes "doing" rather than "traveling." By removing the friction between a user’s location and the available inventory, Airbnb has tapped into the lucrative "staycation" and local leisure market, which is less susceptible to the seasonal fluctuations of international tourism.
Comparative Market Analysis and Supporting Data
The global tours, activities, and attractions market is estimated to be worth approximately $150 billion annually, yet it remains one of the most fragmented sectors of the travel industry. While the lodging sector saw rapid digitization over the last two decades, nearly 40% of tours and activities are still booked offline or through legacy systems.
Airbnb’s 6x growth in Paris stands in stark contrast to the broader industry’s steady but more modest recovery. For comparison, major competitors in the experiences space reported the following trends during the 2025-2026 period:
- Viator (Tripadvisor): Maintained a dominant market share in "big bus" tours and landmark skip-the-line tickets, with a 15% increase in gross bookings driven by international travel recovery.
- GetYourGuide: Focused heavily on European expansion and digital integration at major attractions, seeing a 20% growth in its core European markets.
- Klook: Continued to lead the Asian market, particularly in theme park and transport bookings, with a 25% year-over-year increase.
Airbnb’s distinct advantage lies in its brand equity and its massive existing user base. With over 500 million guest arrivals annually, the company has a lower customer acquisition cost than its competitors. If Airbnb can successfully convert even 5% of its local app users into Experience bookers, it could become the largest player in the sector by volume.
Strategic Implications: New York and the "1,000 Cities" Goal
Following the Paris pilot, Chesky confirmed that the "local-first" playbook is being exported to New York City. This move is particularly strategic given the regulatory environment in New York, where strict laws have significantly curtailed the number of short-term rental listings available on the platform. By emphasizing Experiences, Airbnb can maintain its brand presence and revenue stream in the city even as its housing inventory remains constrained.
The expansion plan is ambitious. Chesky noted that while the company is "not even close" to achieving this level of local penetration in 1,000 cities yet, the goal is to scale rapidly. The technical infrastructure for this expansion involves:
- Hyper-Local Personalization: Utilizing AI to suggest activities to users based on their home zip code and past preferences.
- Host Diversification: Encouraging professional instructors, chefs, and artisans—who may not be home hosts—to join the platform as Experience providers.
- Dynamic Pricing: Implementing tools that allow hosts to offer "local" discounts or off-peak pricing to encourage repeat bookings from residents.
Industry analysts suggest that this move could also help Airbnb mitigate the "overtourism" backlash in popular destinations. By promoting a wider variety of activities across different neighborhoods, the platform can distribute economic benefits more evenly throughout a city, rather than concentrating them in high-traffic tourist zones.
Reactions from Industry Experts and Stakeholders
The travel industry has reacted with a mixture of optimism and skepticism to Airbnb’s new direction. "Airbnb has always had the best ‘vibe’ in the experiences space, but they lacked the inventory and the logistical reliability of a Viator," said Marcus Thorne, a senior travel analyst. "If they have truly ‘cracked the code’ on locals, they are essentially creating a new category of spend. People don’t think of themselves as ‘tourists’ in their own city, so the branding has to be perfect."
Local business owners in Paris have reported a tangible impact from the surge in bookings. Jean-Pierre L., who runs a small pottery studio in the 11th Arrondissement, noted that his Airbnb Experience bookings have shifted from 90% American tourists to nearly 50% local Parisians over the last 12 months. "The locals are better for business in the long run," he said. "They come back, they tell their friends, and they don’t just come during the summer."
However, some critics point out that the "mainstream" pivot could alienate the original community of hosts who valued the platform for its exclusivity and anti-commercial stance. Maintaining a balance between high-volume landmark tours and the "magical" one-on-one encounters that defined the brand’s early years will be a significant operational challenge.
Future Outlook: Beyond Traditional Travel
As Airbnb prepares to scale this model, the implications for the broader gig economy and urban leisure market are profound. If successful, Airbnb could become a primary competitor to platforms like Eventbrite, Yelp, and even social media discovery tools like Instagram and TikTok.
The focus on the "1,000 cities" suggests a long-term vision where the Airbnb app is opened daily by users looking for something to do, rather than just once or twice a year when planning a vacation. This frequency of use would dramatically increase the platform’s data collection capabilities and its overall enterprise value.
In the near term, the market will be watching the New York rollout closely. New York presents unique challenges, including a highly competitive local events scene and a diverse population with vastly different leisure habits. If the Paris "6x growth" can be replicated in the American market, it will confirm that Airbnb’s decade-long investment in Experiences is finally ready to pay off, transforming the company from a lodging provider into a central pillar of the global experience economy.
