Trip.com rides tourism rebound with surging inbound demand

Trip.com Group's 2024 results show annual revenue rising 20 percent year on year to 53.3 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion), fueled by China's tourism resurgence. Booming inbound tourism was a highlight with the introduction of China's new visa-free policies.

Trip, the China's biggest tourism platform, reported net profit soaring 72 percent year on year to 17.2 billion yuan, reflecting operational efficiency gains amid market recovery.

The travel platform capitalized on China's visa facilitation policies, including Shanghai's 72/144-hour transit visa exemptions. National immigration data shows 1.46 million foreign entries in the first half of 2024, up 153 percent compared with a year ago, with visa-free entries jumping 190 percent. Trip's inbound bookings doubled annually in 2024, with visa-exempt countries contributing 150-percent growth.

To capture this momentum, Trip.com launched cross-border solutions, such as digital integration and on-ground services. For example, over 11,000 domestic attractions now sell tickets via Trip's overseas platforms, while it has partnered with 64 major tourist sites to install multilingual ticketing kiosks, serving 15,000 international travelers offline by the end of the year, the company told Shanghai Daily on Wednesday.

Shanghai-based Trip also expanded elderly-friendly services and created new tourism jobs, positioning itself as a key enabler of China's inbound travel ecosystem.