Chinese online travel agency Trip.com (NASDAQ:TCOM), or Ctrip, on Monday reported the first profitable quarter this year with a net revenue of RMB 5.5 billion (USD 805 million), a 48% decline compared to the third quarter of 2019, but a 73% increase from the previous quarter, mainly driven by a strong recovery momentum in China. Trip.com’s stock rose 2.7% to USD 35.3 in after-hours trading.
Among its four main businesses, the accommodation reservation sector generated RMB 2.5 billion (USD 365 million) in sales in the July-to-September period, down 40% year-on-year (YoY) and up 98% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). Transportation ticketing revenues decreased by 49% YoY and increased by 66% QoQ to RMB 1.9 billion (USD 280 million). The packaged-tour business and corporate travel gained RMB 326 million (USD 48 million) and RMB 282 million (USD 42 million), respectively. China started to lift cross-region travel restrictions since mid-July, leading to a rebound in the domestic travel industry.
The net income attributable to the group’s shareholders was RMB 1.6 billion (USD 234 million) in the third quarter, compared to RMB 793 million in the same period in 2019 and a net loss of RMB 476 million in the previous quarter.
“In the third quarter of 2020, the global travel industry continued to be under significant pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said executive chairman James Liang Jianzhang. “However, in China, we have already seen most of our major business segments return to the pre-COVID level of activities in recent months. The speedy recovery in our China market demonstrated once again the strong resilience of the travel industry.”
“In 2021, Trip.com will plow into the domestic travel market in four ways—via content, products, supply chain, and quality,” said Liang at a Trip.com conference in October, noting that the overall global strategy will remain the same while the firm is trying to leverage advantages domestically.