Trip.com Group disclosed its 2025 financial results on February 26, alongside its fourth-quarter earnings. For the full year, it reported net revenue of RMB 62.4 billion (USD 8.7 billion) and net profit excluding investment income of RMB 13.4 billion (USD 1.9 billion).
Headline figures such as revenue and profit often invite a linear interpretation of growth or decline. The company’s disclosures, however, suggest a structural adjustment. As traffic-driven expansion approaches saturation and competition stabilizes, online travel platforms are entering a phase defined less by user acquisition and more by supply-side restructuring.
The shift is reflected in capital allocation and operating focus. Trip.com is placing less emphasis on expanding transaction volume and more on how value is created and retained across the travel supply chain. Its expansion into county-level and lower-tier markets indicates a geographic redistribution of attention. At the same time, company disclosures show increased investment in technology services, operational partnerships, and service guarantees, signaling a gradual move beyond pure traffic intermediation.
As a platform connecting consumers with a fragmented base of hotels, travel agencies, and attractions, Trip.com’s primary function remains the reduction of information asymmetry and the improvement of industry efficiency. In earlier phases of growth, this was achieved largely through demand aggregation and transaction facilitation. As online penetration matures, that function is extending into infrastructure investment, standardized operating systems, data-driven advisory services, and multilingual technology tools that influence how suppliers structure products and manage service delivery.
Company data offer one measurable indicator of this transition. More than 50,000 jobs were created within its ecosystem over the past year, with over half located in second-tier and lower-tier cities. The geographic distribution indicates that incremental employment and income opportunities are increasingly tied to regional markets rather than concentrated in major urban centers.
Platform competition is correspondingly shifting. The focus is less on capturing incremental traffic from rivals and more on expanding supply quality, improving service reliability, and integrating smaller merchants into national and international tourism flows.
Enabling the industry
For online travel agency businesses, the core function of matching supply and demand has reached structural maturity. Further growth depends on whether consumer demand can be translated into operational improvements on the supply side, particularly among small- and medium-sized hotels, independent travel agencies, and county-level attractions that lack scale advantages.
For Trip.com, this has meant reducing emphasis on linear gross merchandise value expansion and increasing attention to three operational areas: digital infrastructure in lower-tier markets, standardized merchant enablement tools, and the deployment of advanced technologies to address service and language gaps.
Growth in China’s cultural tourism sector is increasingly concentrated in third- and fourth-tier cities and county-level regions. Many of these destinations offer distinctive landscapes and cultural experiences but face structural constraints, including limited digitalization, incomplete product information, inconsistent service standards, and restricted payment options.
Trip.com’s response has included direct operational partnerships. By the end of 2025, the company said it had entered joint investment and operational agreements with more than 130 scenic areas. These arrangements extend beyond listing inventory to the installation of smart ticketing systems, dynamic pricing mechanisms, and the development of secondary consumption products such as boat tours and campsites.
The company also reported deploying multilingual smart ticketing machines supporting more than 16 languages across 241 scenic sites. This reduces the need for destinations to independently recruit multilingual staff, which can be costly or difficult to source in smaller cities.
Operational support includes data analysis. Many county-level attractions have historically depended primarily on ticket revenue. Through user consumption data, the platform advises operators on product bundling and visitor flow design, with the stated objective of increasing ancillary spending on dining, accommodation, and experiential activities. In practical terms, operating models developed in first-tier markets are being transferred to regional destinations through digital tools.
For fragmented operators such as homestays and rural guesthouses, the company has introduced flexible bundling systems. More than 3,900 hotels and attractions in second- and third-tier cities have adopted the system, according to company data. Travelers can add tickets, car rentals, or local experiences to accommodation bookings within a single transaction.
This integration is intended to increase average transaction values and connect smaller merchants into more coherent itineraries. Through standardized service frameworks and credit evaluation systems, the platform seeks to reduce inconsistent service quality and information gaps that have historically characterized lower-tier markets.
As travel patterns shift from large, price-driven group tours toward smaller and customized formats, 2,548 travel agencies registered in second-tier and lower-tier cities are active on the platform, accounting for 72.8% of the total, according to company disclosures. This distribution suggests a larger share of tourism revenue may remain within regional markets rather than being consolidated by wholesalers in first-tier cities.
A toolkit for small merchants
The resilience of the tourism sector depends on small operators. Independent hotels often lack product development capabilities and brand pricing power, while traditional travel agencies face thin margins and talent attrition.
Trip.com’s hotel strategy increasingly centers on product design. In 2025, hotels in first-tier cities using calendar-based room packages that bundle accommodation with services such as dining and spa treatments recorded average revenue per room night approximately 10% higher year-on-year, according to company data.
For smaller hotels, the platform provides digital tools and data insights intended to help operators incorporate local cultural, culinary, and lifestyle elements into bundled offerings. The objective is differentiation through experience rather than price competition alone.
For travel agencies, the adjustment is structural. The traditional commission-driven model often required tour guides to generate on-site sales, a practice that has been criticized for distorting service incentives. By promoting customized travel and small-group products, the platform is encouraging agencies to compete on service design and execution.
Company data indicate that per capita spending on small-group products increased by 80%, while trip duration rose by 13%. On the supply side, the company reports supporting 3,500 small and medium travel agencies in upgrading service capabilities and contributing to the creation of more than 50,000 jobs, with over half located in second-tier and lower-tier cities.
The company also reported that more than 20,000 hybrid driver-and-guide roles were added nationwide in 2025. This reflects a shift toward multifaceted roles that combine transportation and personalized guiding services, aligning with smaller group formats.
Using technology for inclusion
Scalability underpins platform enablement, and technology serves as the primary mechanism. In tourism, where transactions depend heavily on information clarity and trust, artificial intelligence functions as infrastructure linking domestic suppliers with international demand.
According to Trip.com, it invests approximately RMB 1 billion (USD 140 million) annually in related areas, with technology as a central focus. Its proprietary travel-focused large language model has translated product information from more than 8,000 partners into 25 languages and introduced 63,000 ticket types that can be booked by international visitors.
The system is designed to interpret complex cancellation and refund policies specific to travel services, reducing uncertainty for overseas customers unfamiliar with local terms.
In customer service, AI-driven tools can provide real-time multilingual interpretation in online consultations, while the company’s phone system offers simultaneous interpretation. These functions standardize multilingual support, lowering barriers for small merchants to serve international customers.
In 2025, nearly 70,000 China-based merchants received inbound orders through the company’s overseas platform for the first time, including more than 63,000 hotels, according to company data.
Beyond technology, Trip.com allocated RMB 2.9 billion (USD 406 million) in 2025 to service guarantees, including disaster relief funds, a global SOS platform covering 27 medical assistance providers and one million medical institutions, and round-the-clock multilingual customer support.
These expenditures function as ecosystem-level risk management mechanisms. With platform-backed guarantees, small merchants may be more willing to accept complex international bookings. Travelers, aware of available support systems, may be more inclined to visit less familiar destinations.
Taken together, the company’s investments in regional digital infrastructure, merchant operational tools, multilingual technologies, and service guarantees indicate a reorientation of platform value from transaction scale to ecosystem capacity.
Strategy, capital allocation, and operational involvement have evolved. The platform is assuming greater responsibility for infrastructure development, operational standardization, and risk mitigation. Profitability increasingly reflects returns on these service-intensive activities rather than pure traffic aggregation.
Its main function, however, remains organizing markets and improving efficiency. The longer-term measure of performance may depend less on transaction volume and more on whether regional suppliers become more competitive, tourism resources generate sustainable economic value, and consumers access safer and more diverse travel options.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by 36Kr Caijing.