Edit |Yuer Lake
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In the fourth quarter of 2023, the "involution" of ice and snow tourism and cultural tourism in various places will continue to maintain a high level of popularity in the tourism industry, which has been an "off-season" in the past four quarters, and make Ctrip Group, the largest tourism platform in China, a big winner.
According to Ctrip's recently disclosed unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Ctrip's net revenue was approximately RMB10.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 105%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was about 1.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 38%. Ctrip's net operating income for the full year of 2023 will be about 44.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 122%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was about 9.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 607%.
Under the bright results in 2023, what did Ctrip do right? Obviously, in addition to the impact of macro positive factors such as the recovery of the industry after the epidemic, Ctrip has more "passwords" for performance growth.
The performance continued to recover, and Ctrip returned to a period of rapid growth
In addition to the outstanding overall performance, Ctrip's core business data is also "blooming everywhere". According to the data, the operating income of Ctrip's accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, tourism and vacation, and business travel management was 3.9 billion yuan, 4.1 billion yuan, and 70.4 billion yuan, 63.4 billion yuan.
At the same time, Ctrip's outbound hotel and air ticket bookings recovered to more than 80% of the same period in 2019, and Ctrip's international aviation passenger traffic recovered to 60%. The total bookings on Ctrip's OTA platform increased by more than 70% year-on-year.
In summary, for the full year of 2023, Trip.com Group's accommodation booking revenue was 17.3 billion yuan, transportation ticketing revenue was 18.4 billion yuan, travel and vacation business revenue was 3.1 billion yuan, and business travel management business revenue was 2.3 billion yuan, with growth rates of %.
It is worth noting that through refined operations, the number of airport segments in the fourth and fifth tier cities on Ctrip's platform has increased significantly, with a year-on-year increase of 127% compared with 2022. The number of new homestay merchants increased by 122% year-on-year, the number of cooperative merchants in the tourism and vacation business line increased by 54% year-on-year, and the transaction value increased by more than 3 times year-on-year.
Through Ctrip's overall performance in 2023 and the data growth of different business segments, it can be seen that in 2023 after the epidemic, Ctrip has resumed its former rapid growth and is expected to continue to lead in the new round of industry cycle.
As for the rapid growth of Ctrip's performance, industry insiders generally believe that Ctrip's growth is a high-quality growth based on technological innovation and business model innovation. As Liang Jianzhang, Co-Founder and Chairman of Trip.com Group, said, "We will continue to focus on globalization and AI innovation, and are confident that we will build on our success in 2023 and further explore future opportunities." ”
In fact, Ctrip has indeed done a lot of things to lay the foundation for high-quality development in 2023. For example, we will continue to increase technological innovation, continuously improve user satisfaction and the ability to serve partners, and promote low-carbon development of the industry, promote employment and rural revitalization, and seek high-quality growth while ensuring sustainable development.
It can be seen that Ctrip's return to high-quality growth will not be achieved overnight. However, thanks to its years of industry precipitation and precautions, it has also returned to the right track of development after the industry suffered a heavy blow at the fastest speed.
It is foreseeable that after the macro environment of the industry recovers, Ctrip's development will also be further accelerated. This also means that in the new industry cycle, Ctrip will also stand at a new starting point and height to participate in the market game.
Driven by technology and innovation, Ctrip should be a "powerful faction".
If the first tourism platform in the past was to fight for capital and flow, then today's first tourism market has entered the competition stage of comprehensive strength such as technology and innovation.
According to the analysis, Ctrip's return to rapid growth is also due to Ctrip's continuous investment in technological innovation and product optimization, as well as its keen insight into market changes.
Take R&D investment, which measures a company's scientific and technological strength, as an example. According to the financial report data, in 2023, Trip.com Group's product research and development expenses will reach 12.1 billion yuan, accounting for about 27% of net operating income. More than 10 billion R&D investment, put into the tourism industry, is also at a high level.
In terms of its R&D direction, Trip.com Group will do its best in 2023. It is understood that Ctrip's large-scale R&D investment mainly provides underlying support for its business innovation, so as to improve its service quality to C-end users and B-end partners.
Returning to Ctrip, the results of technology research and development need to be applied at the business level and transformed into commercial value. Ctrip's application of advanced AI technology is mainly to improve its customer service level, improve the activity and stickiness of platform users through content innovation, and empower partners in the travel industry.
According to ** reports, in 2023, Ctrip has successively launched Ctrip, a vertical model of the tourism industry, and Tripgenie, an AI travel assistant, which has greatly improved users' consumption experience such as flexible itinerary scheduling and instant and efficient service booking.
Thanks to these technical supports, some of Ctrip's businesses have gradually become "digital" and "automated". For example, by the end of 2023, with the help of intelligent customer service, the self-service resolution rate of user problems in Ctrip's air ticket and hotel business has reached more than 70%.
Combined with manual customer service, in 2023, Ctrip's user satisfaction will maintain a high level, and the NPS (Net Promoter Score) Q4 will increase by 2% compared with Q3. In addition, Ctrip has also built 7 24-hour multilingual customer support and global SOS emergency assistance services to escort global tourists and continuously improve user satisfaction.
In terms of product optimization, Ctrip will also make frequent moves in 2023, which will drive the entire industry to become "active". It is understood that due to the epidemic, the tourism industry continued to be sluggish, and many practitioners in the tourism industry were forced to transform. With the recovery of the industry, Ctrip has also brought "vitality" to the industry in terms of tourism talent training.
According to the data, as of 2023, Ctrip has directly driven more than 100,000 employees through its own recruitment and platform-registered tour guides and customizers, and indirectly driven more than 10 million employees through its own recruitment and platform-registered tour guides and customizers, plus employees who provide services such as hotels, air tickets, tickets, and cars on the platform.
Take Trip.com Group's 2023 recruitment program for women, the "Travel Mulan Program", as an example. At that time, Ctrip CEO Sun Jie cooperated with BTG Homeinns, Wuzhen Tourism, Haichang Ocean Park, InterContinental Hotels and other tourism industry partners to launch the program, which has accumulated more than 210,000 women are employed in the tourism industry. It is precisely because of this that Ctrip has also injected great confidence into the entire industry.
According to the analysis, the tourism industry has a significant role in stimulating consumption such as accommodation, catering, and shopping, so measures such as Ctrip's efforts to promote employment in the industry are also regarded as positive energy to drive rural revitalization, which is conducive to achieving the unity of economic and social benefits.
Serve the C-end and empower the B-side, and high-quality growth has become the main theme
As a leading travel platform enterprise, Ctrip's mission is to better serve merchants and end consumers. Therefore, Ctrip has also spared no effort to continuously improve its service capabilities on the B-end and C-side.
On the one hand, Ctrip continues to improve consumers' service experience through the application of advanced AI technology. For example, by combining intelligent algorithms and manual verification, Ctrip has upgraded its word-of-mouth list, allowing users to choose more reliable travel strategies.
According to the data, the average daily visits of Ctrip's word-of-mouth list in 2023 will increase by more than 150% year-on-year, and bring more ** and transaction opportunities to the merchants on the list. While improving its service experience, Ctrip contributed 23% of traffic and nearly 10% of GMV to merchants in 2023. trip.The average daily visits of overseas users on the BEST list in 2023 will increase by more than 5 times year-on-year.
On the other hand, in addition to better serving the C-side and bringing greater positive feedback to the B-side, Ctrip also continuously empowers its partners in different fields to achieve win-win value.
For example, in terms of hotels and travel agencies corresponding to cultural tourism, in 2023, Ctrip launched the "China Tourism Revitalization Plan A". Empower and help the traffic services and marketing promotion of various tourist attractions.
At the same time, Ctrip has also promoted the development of the tourism industry in dozens of provinces and municipalities directly under the central government by jointly establishing cultural and tourism industry incubation centers with many places and issuing cultural tourism consumption vouchers, which has greatly increased the transaction volume.
It has been observed that under the operation of Ctrip's ecological height and industry structure, Ctrip's high-quality development has also brought win-win results for the growth of industry partners.
Taking the current hot homestay as an example, in 2023, the number of new homestay merchants entering Ctrip increased by 122% year-on-year, and through professional training, traffic** and other measures, the GMV of new homestay merchants in 23 years increased by more than 3 times compared with that of new homestay merchants in 22.
In addition, Ctrip has also significantly increased the number of merchants it works with and the amount of transactions. Through its digital technology, nearly one million growing enterprises and tens of thousands of large enterprises have obtained its technological support, setting an industry benchmark for such enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
There are various signs that now that the industry is picking up, Trip.com Group is not only pursuing growth, but also pursuing ecological, sustainable and high-quality growth. This growth trend not only consolidates Ctrip's fundamentals, but also sets a benchmark for the industry and injects confidence.
Conclusion
Looking at Ctrip's report card for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2023, it is clear that the capital market is very satisfied. It is understood that in the past six months, the share price and market value of Trip.com Group have also been rising. This is not only the "confidence" of Ctrip to move to a higher height, but also represents the full confidence of investors in Ctrip Group.
It is foreseeable that with the further recovery of the tourism hotel market, Ctrip's performance and growth rate will soon return to the level before the epidemic, and with the blessing of its multi-dimensional advantages in technology, products and services, Ctrip is also expected to continue to be brilliant in the new era of "great cultural tourism".
In this way, the brilliant report card of 2024 is just a new starting point for Ctrip. People also expect that Ctrip will stand at this new starting point and bring more excitement to people in the future. And Ctrip, which has scaled new heights, will also have a great future in the future.