Jane Sun, 56, chief executive of online travel booking platform Trip.com, said China’s travel boom shows no signs of abating as millennials seek adventure, despite an economic slowdown that has curbed domestic consumer spending. “If you ask young people in China today what their top priority is, everyone will tell you that travel is No. 1,” she said in an interview on the sidelines of the recent Forbes Global CEO Conference in Bangkok. “COVID-19 has changed people’s mentality.”
According to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council, Chinese tourists are expected to spend 1.8 trillion yuan ($250 billion) on international travel this year, an increase of 42% from the previous year and exceeding the pre-epidemic level of 1.7 trillion yuan in 2019. Sun said travel demand in the world’s second-largest economy remained resilient due to a fundamental shift in the spending habits of China’s young people after experiencing lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. Forbes Asia2018 Emerging Women Entrepreneurs List.
The growth in demand for air tickets and hotel bookings has boosted Ctrip’s profits. In the third quarter as of September, the company’s net profit increased by nearly 50% year-on-year to 6.8 billion yuan, and revenue increased by 16% to 15.9 billion yuan.
Ctrip CEO Sun Jie delivered a speech at the Forbes Global CEO Conference held in Bangkok from November 20 to 21, 2024.
Forbes Asia
Looking ahead to 2025, Sun said she has reason to be optimistic, noting that in addition to their favorite travel hotspots such as Japan, Singapore and Thailand, Chinese tourists are also showing increasing interest in some long-distance destinations such as Australia and South Africa. interest. People are also willing to explore more remote, lesser-known domestic destinations, she added. For example, the previously unknown industrial city of Zibo in Shandong province experienced a sudden influx of tourists last year, in part because of its cheap skewers.
Trip.com’s strong earnings growth pushed its shares to a record high in October; the stock is up about 80% so far this year, adding $18 billion to the company’s market value to $41 billion and making it a One of the best-performing stocks on the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index.
Billy Qi, a Shanghai-based analyst at research firm 86Research, said the once fierce price war with local services giant Meituan, which offers coupons and subsidies for hotels booked on its website, has subsided. Qi added that Ctrip’s share price may have room to rise further as its current price-to-earnings ratio on Nasdaq stands at 22.6 times, lagging U.S. rival Booking Holdings’ price-to-earnings ratio of 34.5 times.
Wang Kai, an analyst at Morningstar in Hong Kong, believes Ctrip’s current valuation is quite reasonable, saying profit growth in 2025 and beyond will justify further share price increases. He added that the travel industry is one of his preferred industries because it is not directly affected by the escalating trade war between China and the United States and President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to increase tariffs.
SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE – MARCH 2: (Editorial use only. Not for independent publication use (no special interest or single artist publication use; no book use)) Taylor Swift at the National Stadium on March 2 Performing during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour, 2024 in Singapore. (Photo: Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
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Sun said she has other ideas to attract customers. The company, founded 25 years ago, plans to add more event-related products, such as concerts. She cited Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in Australia, Japan and Singapore, which sold out and attracted crowds of tourists to those countries.
“We will continue to innovate,” Sun said. “We add products whenever customers want them.”
