Consolidating the Mass Travel Market to Drive High-Quality Growth
Deepening AI Applications to Empower Sustainable Development
HONG KONG, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited (“Tongcheng Travel” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries the “Group”, stock code: 0780.HK), a leading comprehensive travel service platform in China, today announced its unaudited consolidated results for the three months ended 31 March 2026 (the “period under review” or “2026Q1”).
Mr. Ma Heping, Co-Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tongcheng Travel, said, “In the first quarter of 2026, China’s travel market continued to demonstrate robust growth, driven by structural shifts in consumer travel demand and favorable holiday policies. As a leading travel platform in China, we remained highly attuned to market dynamics and implemented effective strategies to seize emerging growth opportunities while meeting evolving user needs. During the period under review, The Group continued to deliver solid results. We proactive approach to capture opportunities arising from structural market shift. Looking ahead, the Group will remain focused on our core OTA business, strengthening our foothold in the mass market while steadily growing our outbound travel services to enhance our global footprint.”
|
2026Q1 Highlights with Year-on-year (“yoy”) Comparison |
|
Revenue and Adjusted Profit Continue Strong Growth Momentum from 2025
Growing User Base Further Strengthened Its Position in China’s Mass Market.
Core OTA Businesses Demonstrates Exceptional Growth and Resilience
|
Continuously Deepening on the Mass Travel Market
Steady Growth in User Base and Improving User Value
Leveraging its exceptional operational capabilities, Tongcheng Travel has further strengthened its position in China’s mass market. The Group’s effective user acquisition and engagement initiatives enabled it to continuously expand its user base and improve user value. During the period under review, the Group’s average MPUs amounted to 46.4 million. The APUs reached a record high of 253.9 million with 2.7% yoy growth while the twelve-month Accumulated Number of Travelers Served increased to 2,047.4 million with 4.5% yoy growth.
During the period under review, Tongcheng Travel was committed to enhancing user engagement and optimizing operational efficiency across all traffic channels. Through the long-standing partnership with Tencent, the Weixin ecosystem continued to serve as a vital traffic source, enabling the Group to establish a broad user base across China. As of March 31, 2026, over 87% of the registered users resided in non-first tier cities in China. Meanwhile, the Group rolled out a series of innovative and targeted marketing campaigns that effectively boosted user engagement and loyalty, further reinforcing its positioning as an experience-driven travel platform.
Core OTA Business Sustained High-Quality Growth
Hotel Management Business Became New Driver of Expansion
During the period under review, the Group’s core OTA business experienced high-quality growth. The Group’s transportation business continued to demonstrate resilience. The revenue from transportation ticketing services increased by 6.2% yoy to RMB2,124.0 million. The growth was mainly attributable to the expanding portfolio of value-added products and services which facilitate users’ journeys. As for the international air ticketing business, the Group further solidified its brand recognition through competitive pricing strategies and high-quality services, achieving healthy growth in both volume and revenue. In terms of train ticketing business, the Group remained committed to prioritizing user experience and continued to optimize the algorithm-driven Huixing system, providing users with viable end-to-end travel solutions.
In 2026Q1, the Group’s revenue from the accommodation business increased by 14.7% yoy o RMB1,364.5 million with room nights sold showing robust growth. Driven by the increasing demand for higher-quality accommodation options, the proportion of higher-quality hotel room nights sold on the platform continued to increase yoy during the period under review. Meanwhile, the Group implemented targeted user segmentation and tiered engagement strategies to drive purchase frequency and enhance user loyalty. As for the international accommodation business, the Group continuously expanded cooperation with global suppliers and steadily enriched its global product offerings. The Group also leveraged its domestic user base to drive cross-sale initiatives and executed precise marketing campaigns targeting high-potential users. These efforts contributed to robust growth in the international room nights sold in 2026Q1.
During the period under review, the Group’s other businesses once again exhibited exceptional growth. The revenue from other businesses achieved RMB961.4 million with 59.6% yoy growth, driven by excellent performance of its hotel management business and the consolidation of Wanda Hotels and Resorts. Tongcheng Travel continuously expanded the hotel network by leveraging its comprehensive brand portfolio, competitive technological capabilities, and organizational agility. The Elong Hotel Technology platform shareholders focused on hotel brands with a proven track record of market recognition, while Wanda Hotels and Resorts accelerated its network expansion nationwide, capitalizing on strong brand equity, and end-to-end service capabilities ranging from design to operational management.
Deepening AI Technology Applications to Drive the Group’s Sustainable Development
As an innovation-driven enterprise, Tongcheng Travel proactively embraces innovation to drive business transformation, viewing the AI era as a time of immense opportunity. During the period under review, the Group continued to enhance DeepTrip’s capabilities and broaden its application scenarios. The Group extended DeepTrip’s integration with additional transportation resources to deliver AI-driven, end-to-end travel solutions. The Group also integrated DeepTrip into its air ticketing service to address users’ pre-booking inquiries and help them identify options with more competitive prices. On the other hand, the Group continued to pursue strategic collaboration with leading external AI agents to seize future growth opportunities. In customer service, the Group introduced real-time simultaneous interpretation across both online consultation and voice consultation channels, effectively eliminating language barriers and significantly enhancing the global user experience. Additionally, the Group has leveraged AI capabilities to empower the customer service team in better understanding user inquiries and delivering faster, and more accurate responses.
As a socially responsible enterprise, Tongcheng Travel has integrated social responsibility into every aspect of the daily operations. In late February, the Group established an emergency response team promptly following the outbreak of conflicts in the Middle East, to safeguard user travel and support affected users. On top of that, the Group’s outstanding performance in ESG has once again received international recognition, and the Group was awarded the “Industry Mover” by S&P Global for the second consecutive year and was included in S&P Global’s sustainability yearbook (China) for the fourth consecutive year.
Looking ahead, Tongcheng Travel maintains a positive outlook for both the company’s performance and the broader China travel industry. The Group will remain focused on its core OTA business. In the meantime, the Group will accelerate the growth of its hotel management segment, with a strong emphasis on expanding hotel network and enhancing execution efficiency. The Group is also proactively leveraging AI technological innovations to capture new growth opportunities and improve operational efficiency. Finally, the Group remain dedicated to advancing its ESG performance and delivering sustainable, long-term value for society and all its stakeholders.
About Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited (HKEX Stock Code: 0780.HK)
Tongcheng Travel is a one-stop shop platform for users’ travel needs. With the mission “make travel easier and more joyful”, Tongcheng Travel offers a comprehensive and innovative selection of products and services covering nearly all aspects of travel, including transportation ticketing, accommodation reservation, tourist attraction ticketing, hotel management, packaged tour, and a wide array of value-added ancillary services primarily through its online platforms, which comprise its Tencent-based platforms, its proprietary mobile APPs, quick APPs and other channels.
As a technology-driven company, Tongcheng Travel leverages big data and AI capabilities to better understand the preferences and behaviors of users, thereby offering users customized products and services. Tongcheng Travel has a strategic focus on lower-tier cities in China and seized opportunities there supported by its diversified traffic sources, product innovation capability and flexible operation strategies. Through the in-depth understanding of user needs and advanced technological capabilities, Tongcheng Travel has been revolutionizing what consumers expect from the online travel industry, making the entire travel process more convenient, personalized and enjoyable than ever. Tongcheng Travel aims to develop and apply its advanced technology to transform from an online travel agency to intelligent travel assistant.
For more information, please visit the Group’s website at https://www.tongchengir.com
