Chinese travel and spending have slowly started to rebound
China's online one-stop travel service provider Trip.com (TCOM:NASDAQ, 9961:HKEX) released its quarterly earnings report on June 28, 2022, with a net revenue of CNY 4.1 billion (USD 649 million), down 12% quarter-on-quarter.
The drop was primarily due to the continued disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 resurgence in China.
More specifically, the accommodation reservation revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was CNY 1.5 billion (USD 229 million), representing an 8% decrease from the same period in 2021, and a 24% decrease from the previous quarter. Transportation ticketing revenue was CNY 1.7 billion, up 10% from the previous quarter, and it was primarily driven by a strong recovery of air travel in the oversea market. While the revenue from the packaged tour and corporate travel was CNY 124 million (down 27% YoY) and CNY 222 million (down 12% YoY).
Loss from operations for the reporting period was CNY 359 million (USD 55 million), compared to a loss from operations of CNY 787 million for the same period in 2021.
Adjusted EBITDA was CNY 91 million (USD 16 million), with an EBITDA margin of 2% for the first quarter of 2022.
As of press time, TCOM closed at USD 28.33 apiece, with a market cap of USD 18.04 billion.
The company's rivals include American online travel company TripAdvisor (TRIP:NASDAQ), Booking.com (BKNG:NASDAQ) and Expedia (EXPE:NASDAQ). Domestically speaking, Alibaba-backed Fliggy (Chinese: 飞猪) and Meituan are two other promising competitors.