Domestic flight and hotel bookings return to pre-pandemic levels

The domestic tourism business has returned to pre-pandemic levels this year, "an exciting year for recovery and growth," said Trip, China's biggest tourism site, on Tuesday.

The Nasdaq-listed company, formerly known as Ctirp, posted a net profit of 1.4 billion yuan (US$201 million) in 2022, turning around from the previous year.

Domestic flight and accommodation booking volumes have already surpassed the same period in 2019, marking a strong tourism demand rebound after the pandemic.

The outbound travel bookings have also recovered to over 40 percent of pre-pandemic levels, Trip's executives said during a conference call on Tuesday.

"With China's full reopening (after the pandemic), the year of 2023 is destined to be an exciting year of recovery and growth," said James Chang, Trip's executive chairman.

For the full year of 2022, the net profit of the company was 1.4 billion yuan, compared to a net loss of 645 million yuan in 2021. The revenue of the whole year was 20.0 billion yuan, which remained flat compared to that of 2021, according to Trip.

"We've seen rapid growth for China's outbound travel since the beginning of 2023, showing strong pent-up demand for outbound travel. We're excited about the opportunities ahead and are well prepared to capture demand across our major markets," Liang added in a statement.