China Outlook 2024: Travel Industry’s Recovery Poised To Continue – Trip.com CEO Jane Sun

03.01.2024 - 06:27 / forbes.com / Jane Sun

China’s travel and tourism industry – among the world’s biggest – last year began its recovery from heavy pandemic damage. One beneficiary: Trip.com Group, a global travel service provider that is China’s largest. Revenue in the third quarter of 2023 almost doubled from a year earlier; net profit in the three months to September totaled 4.6 billion yuan (about $637 million), more than 18 times the year-earlier 245 million yuan.

I spoke via Zoom last month to Trip.com Group’s CEO Jane Sun about the outlook for China this year. Sun joined as as CFO in 2005 when it was known as Ctrip. From about $500 million then, Trip.com’s market capitalization on the Nasdaq has increased to $24 billion today, exceeding Expedia ($20 billion) though smaller than Booking ($120 billion). In Hong Kong, where its shares also trade, its 3% rise in the past year contrasts with a 17% plunge in the benchmark Hang Seng Index amid broader concerns about geopolitics and structural problems in China’s economy.

In the wide-ranging interview, Sun, who became CEO in 2016, was upbeat about a continued recovery in China’s travel industry this year – both for domestic travel and international inbound and outbound spending. Among this year’s likely trends:

*China’s domestic tourism will continue to grow. “We have seen a tremendous recovery in domestic travel. Domestic hotel bookings in the third quarter exceeded 2019 levels for hotels by over 70%, which is huge,” Sun said. They also almost doubled from the third quarter of last year, she noted. As long as China’s economy stays on track in 2024, popular short holidays such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Labor Day and others should help a “strong pickup” in domestic travel this year.

*Visa burdens and limited flights for overseas travelers will ease. “The Chinese government is really making very good progress to attract people,” granting landing visas for the first time to visitors from France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Malaysia; bookings from the group increased after its launch in December, Sun said. ”We will put our concerted efforts to make sure we offer unique support when

people come from these countries,” she said. China has also lowered visa fees for U.S. travelers and supported an increase in flights that were cut during the pandemic.

*Chinese travel to the Middle East will continue to flourish. “If you look at the areas that have been doing very well, the first are GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries in the Middle East,” Sun said. Qatar and Dubai have favorable visa policies and make arrival convenient; other nations have online visa application procedures that are “very convenient.” Flight capacity increases last year also augur well for more travelers in 2024.