Trip.com Group Limited (NASDAQ:TCOM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

All these initiatives will help us to drive long-term synergy among our international brands. And we are also very delighted to see the promotion of inbound travel being inscribed in China’s 14th 5-year plan. With our high quality one-stop travel platform and user bases, we are confident to make great contributions to the country’s inbound tourism once it starts to gain momentum. So, in summary, with these three drivers, we think even in the long run, we can maintain and continues to have a very healthy growth rate at double digit, at least double digit growth rate in the next couple of years. Thank you.

Operator: Thanks for the questions. Next up we have the line from James Lee from Mizuho Group. Please ask your question.

James Lee: Great. Thanks for taking my question. Now, given the bottleneck on the flight capacity you guys lay out for outbound travel. How should we think about the shape of that recovery curve? And what are the top destinations you are currently seeing in your search results? Thank you.

James Liang: Thanks James. We have been in discussion with the airlines. They are doing their best to reinvent the capacity. Based on our discussion, right now, the capacity is about 15% to 20%. And hopefully, by the end of June, we will see about 50% recovery. By the end of the year, we will see pretty much, it’s recovered to 80% to 90% of the capacity. And our team will be able to outpace the market. As Cindy said, right now, although the outbound capacity is only at 15% to 20%. But our volume already recovered to 40% of pre-COVID level. So, we are continuously working closely with our global partners to make sure we serve our outbound customers with strong product and service. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for the questions. Next up, we have the line from Thomas Chong from Jefferies. Please ask your question.

Thomas Chong: Hi. Good morning. Thanks management for taking my question. I have a question regarding the Accommodation segment. Can management comment about the accommodation pricing trend in the domestic market in Q1 and 2023? Are we seeing a similar situation like U.S. and Europe market? Thank you.

James Liang: Thank you, Thomas. For the domestic travel average price may go slightly up when demand fully recovers to and surpassed the pre-COVID level, which may also be offset by a potentially higher mix from the lower end €“ lower tier cities. We don’t €“ therefore, we don’t expect a huge surge in pricing China because firstly the hotel and air supplies are still quite stable comparing to pre-COVID level. And overall Price Index in China is still at low level. For the outbound travel business, the average air €“ yes, the average air price is significantly higher due to flights capacity constraints. And we believe the price will decrease as supplier increases. And the average hotel price for our outbound travelers, however, is still lower than the pre-COVID level due to the imbalance of the recovery that is among destinations of course as you mentioned, for the Western Europe and U.S. markets.

The ADR increased quite significantly, while for most of the triple haul groups target customer they are in the Asia-Pacific area where the ADR is still depressed compared with the pre COVID level. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for the questions. Next up, we have the line from Simon Cheung from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question.

Simon Cheung: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the presentation. I got a quick question just again, related to your comment about competitions. Hearing that you are actually penetrating into the rural area and you have strategy going overseas, and perhaps can you help to quantify it with all those comments with some numbers? And when you look €“ thinking about the profit margin or the profitability of the respective business, i.e., the rural domestic business, alongside with the outbound international business, how are we €“ how are they different and also the trend compared to historically? Thank you.