China’s largest online travel platform Trip.com to focus on domestic bookings as Covid-19 disrupts outbound tours, chairman says
- China’s outbound tourism had been booming before Covid-19, with 155 million Chinese travelling abroad in 2019
- Trip.com’s major competitor, Tongcheng-Elong, reported a 1.3 per cent year on year rise in revenue for the third quarter, while profits fell 8.7 per cent
Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel platform by value, will remain focused on the domestic market as Covid-19 travel restrictions continue to ground virtually all Chinese outbound tours, the co-founder and chairman of the firm said on Thursday.
James Liang told the South China Morning Post that the platform’s domestic travel booking volume this year was 70 to 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels, but cross-border travel services, which accounted for 20 per cent of total business before the pandemic, remain close to zero.
“We have to deeply plough the domestic market,” Liang said.
Tourism, which accounts for about 10 per cent of China’s domestic economy, is one of the sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak.
China’s rigid border controls and strict quarantine requirements for anyone returning from abroad – 14 days of hotel quarantine plus seven days home quarantine is the minimum – have effectively ended international tourism.
China’s outbound tourism had been booming before Covid-19, with 155 million Chinese travelling abroad in 2019, an increase of 3.3 per cent from 2018.