Trip.com Group Highlights Signs of a China Travel Rebound Despite a Sobering Outlook
Photo Credit: Tourists pose for a photo inside the Shanghai Disneyland theme park in east China's Shanghai, May 11, 2020. China's domestic short-haul travel is recovering. Ren Long / Alamy Live News / Ren Long
Skift Take
China had a head start on both the pandemic and the travel recovery. Trip.com Group's international business is languishing because of factors beyond its control, and it is hoping to convert usually outbound international travelers into high-end domestic customers. It's all going to be a very long and twisty road.
Optimists will hang onto hopeful signs — a China domestic travel recovery in short-haul trips and high-end stays, as well as South Korea hotel booking trending positive — but realists will point to Trip.com Group's downbeat second quarter forecast showing that a potential travel rebound will be protracted.
In its first quarter earnings call Friday morning local time in Shanghai, Trip.com Group's second quarter forecast was for a net revenue decrease of 67 to 77 percent year over year, and an operating loss, excluding share-ba
