Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had  an unprecedented impact  on the travel and tourism industry. With massive layoffs and  closures , many hospitality professionals have noted that they had never seen such a detrimental event to the industry in their careers. Nobody knows when the  recovery  will take place. Yet, there is at least one exception. The home-sharing sector has already rebounded. Airbnb booking is up and ready for an IPO When the pandemic hit, Airbnb reported  a 90% drop in booking, or a $400 million adjusted loss  in the second quarter. Then, Airbnb  laid off 7,500 employees, or 25% of its workforce , and  cut its marketing budget by 14%  from the last year. Now, when hotels are still struggling and running at  a below 50% occupancy , Airbnb booking has already bounced back. For example, During the weekend of June 5-7, Airbnb’s gross booking value recorded  positive year-to-year growth  for the first time since February. Over 100,000 new guests  in the U.S. used the p

COVID-19 has put many restaurants and hotels out of business. A recent example is the permanent closure of the iconic Hilton Times Square Hotel .   Several restaurant chains recently rolled out new store designs to embrace the contactless self-service and delivery trends demanded by customers. Additionally, when more schools and businesses are reopening , the restaurant industry has already shown signs of recovery. There was a 2% increase in spending year-over-year in the week ending August 30. The outlook for hotels, however, is not as optimistic.   The hotel industry is still struggling.   According to the latest U.S. hotel performance results for the week ending August 29,   ·       The occupancy was 48.2%, a slight decline from the 50% level two weeks ago. ·       The weekend occupancy of August 28 and August 29 was 54.7%. ·       Luxury and upper-upscale hotels continued having a low occupancy of 36.9% and 33.6%, respectively, whereas economy hotels continued running abov