On 25 February, Trip.com Group, known in China as Ctrip (携程) released its annual financial report detailing Q4 2024 and full-year results. For Q4, the group earned 12.7 billion RMB (1.75 billion USD), increasing 23% year-on-year (YoY). The revenue for the full year 2024 was 53.3 billion RMB (7.35 billion USD), up 20% YoY. Net profit for 2024 reached 17.2 billion RMB (2.37 billion USD), up 23% YoY.
Trip.com Group attributes the continued growth to increasingly strong demand, especially on the international side of its business. Ctrip’s outbound hotel and flight bookings grew by over 20% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, while Trip.com’s hotel and flight bookings entering China grew over 70% YoY. The report shows that, across platforms, Trip.com Group saw “China travel” grow 100% YoY in both Q4 and full-year 2024, among them, visitors from countries with visa waivers grew 150% in the last year.
On 17 February, Trip.com Group made the news when it had a reshuffle of its C-suite, naming a new CPO and division CEOs in the group. Pundits point out that the leadership change is mostly aimed at shifting its strategy towards AI, transport ticketing and business travel. Ctrip, among other OTAs (online travel agencies) are leveraging the increasing practicality of AI models for their products and services.
With the “China travel” trend fuelled by social media earlier this year, Trip.com Group will likely see another successful quarter. However, some critics are concerned that its profitability lacks momentum among higher costs and weak recovery of business trips and advertising. Competitors are also gearing up with AI but how the leading OTAs will fare needs to be monitored.
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