On December 16, Ctrip Group announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30: revenue of RMB5.3 billion in the third quarter, both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter due to the repeated impact of the epidemic in recent months, net loss of 868 million yuan, year-on-year from profit to loss, increased sequentially, and adjusted EBITDA (EBITDA before profit) of RMB537 million, adjusted EBITDA margin of 10%.
In the third quarter of 2021, the domestic and foreign travel markets began to go in different directions: the international market recovered significantly due to the relaxation of travel restrictions by many countries; domestically, because of the repeated epidemics, the entire industry continued to be under pressure in the impact. Affected by this, Ctrip presented a dual structure of performance: organic wine revenue fell year-on-year/month- and business travel revenue decreased month-on-month; in comparison, the market share of the Group's international brand Trip.com in Europe increased by about 5 times compared with the beginning of the year, the number of international air ticket bookings increased by about 40% month-on-month, and the order volume of overseas "home hotel" packages increased by more than 10 times compared with the beginning of 2021.
Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of Ctrip Group, said, "'Deep ploughing in China, with a global heart' will continue to be the core strategy for the coming year. "The high vaccination rate in China and the promotion of enhanced needles will enhance Ctrip's resilience to the epidemic, and the travel-friendly policies adopted by many overseas countries have also made the recovery of international travel a predictable trend." Ctrip will continue to strengthen the Group's competitiveness and prepare for the re-prosperity of the global tourism industry, and the company's investment and efforts in content, products, supply chain, quality and other aspects will show results in the next 3 to 5 years.
According to the financial report, in the third quarter of this year, Ctrip's four main business revenues were: accommodation reservation revenue of 2.2 billion yuan, transportation ticketing revenue of 1.8 billion yuan, tourism and vacation income of 392 million yuan, and business travel management income of 338 million yuan. Among them, only the tourism and vacation business maintained positive growth, mainly due to the growth of leisure vacation demand in July before the recurrence of the epidemic in China. As of the end of the third quarter, Ctrip's capital reserves were 67.6 billion yuan, an increase of about 13% over the end of 2020.
In the third quarter, under the double attack of extreme weather and the epidemic, the domestic tourism market suffered a heavy blow, and the changeable travel restrictions made the refund of machine wine reservations the norm. According to reports, in the third quarter, Ctrip and merchants assisted platform users to cancel more than 25.2 billion yuan of orders, reaching 80% of the peak of the wave of unsubscription at the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in early 2020.
Sun Jie, CEO of Ctrip Group, said that from the perspective of industry data, compared with 2019 before the epidemic, the hotel occupancy rate and air ticket booking volume of Ctrip platform in the third quarter fell by about 30% - but the domestic hotel booking volume in the same period maintained positive growth year-on-year, and the recovery of domestic hotel bookings led the industry by 20%-25%. Domestic air ticket bookings are also leading the market. Under the strategy of "deeply cultivating The Country" since the epidemic, Ctrip's total revenue recovered to 56% of the same period in 2019 in the first three quarters of this year, while the Ministry of Culture and Tourism previously disclosed that domestic tourism revenue in the first three quarters recovered to 54.4% in the same period of 2019.
Local tourism remains the main driver of the recovery of domestic tourism. According to the financial report data, in the third quarter of this year, in the domestic market, Ctrip's hotel bookings in the province increased by about 35% compared with the same period in 2019, of which local hotel bookings increased by more than 60%. Nandu reporter noted that behind this, the revenue structure of "hotel + X" has become a major highlight. Sun Jie said that the number of high-star hotels covered by Ctrip hotel packages has increased by more than 10 times, reaching more than 6,000, the proportion of hotel package orders has reached 30%, the average daily transaction volume has increased by 1.5 million yuan, and the GMV of hotel packages has exceeded 60 million at the peak.
In the context of the impact of the epidemic on the global tourism industry, the long-term coexistence with the epidemic has become the consensus of the tourism industry. It is reported that at this stage, Ctrip has built a basic disk through four directions: "deeply cultivating content, deeply cultivating products, deeply cultivating quality, and deeply cultivating supply chain". In terms of "deep content", as of now, Ctrip's conversion rate from content to transaction has further improved, and the number of content releases this year has increased by 100% year-on-year; there are 220 million content browsing users in the content marketing ecosystem, with a monthly conversion rate of up to 30% (that is, 30% of content users will place orders within one month during peak periods); the number of KOLs has increased by 35% compared with the second quarter, and the average number of daily interactive users has increased by 20%.
In the third quarter of this year, against the background of the recovery and slowdown of the domestic tourism market, the international tourism market became the second growth curve of Ctrip's solid basic disk. Sun Jie mentioned that although the global flight volume is still lower than the 2019 level, the number of international air ticket bookings in Trip.com has increased by about 40% month-on-month, "In the past few months, the number of ticket bookings in the European and AMERICAN markets has further recovered compared with before the epidemic." In terms of international layout, Ctrip is working to strengthen strategic synergy between overseas multi-platforms.
Ctrip's senior management team expressed caution and optimism about the fourth quarter performance. In Liang Jianzhang's view, the Asia-Pacific and European markets will continue to be the focus of Ctrip's layout. According to the disclosure, taking Singapore as an example, as of August 2021, the number of new Singaporean users who book local travel through Trip.com increased by 434% over the previous year, and the transaction volume increased by 270%; the number of new Singaporean users in Trip .com increased by more than 10 times. Ctrip said that with the improvement of vaccination rates and the improvement of epidemic response capabilities in various countries, the international travel market will continue to open up, and the restart of China's inbound and outbound travel will also be on the agenda. With the integration of the domestic and international tourism markets, the company will usher in unprecedented opportunities.
Written by: Nandu reporter Fu Xiaoling