Trip.com halved in 2020, then livestreamed and listed its way through the pandemic

COVID-19 cut Trip.com Group's net revenue by 49% in 2020 to RMB18.3bn (US$2.8bn), with packaged-tour revenue down 73%, as China's borders closed and domestic travel evaporated for months. Executive chairman James Liang's summary in the company's own annual results was blunt: '2020 was a challenging year. However, it also made us fundamentally stronger than ever before.'

The unorthodox part of the response was content. From March 2020 Liang personally fronted more than 25 weekly 'Boss Live Stream' webcasts, selling hotel vouchers and travel packages to a locked-down audience; by late October those livestreams had moved $294m of bookings, and Trip.com turned the format into a permanent content engine rather than a one-off stunt.

The financing part was conventional but well-timed. In March 2021 the group reported its worst year, then in April 2021 it completed a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, selling shares at HK$268 to raise $1.09bn. The stock rose 4.5% on debut, and Liang used the moment to bet publicly on domestic travel in major countries recovering within the year, with international travel taking longer.

The bet landed. In its 2023 annual results, filed with the SEC in February 2024, the group reported net revenue of RMB44.5bn (US$6.3bn) — up 122% year on year and comfortably above 2019 — with outbound air and hotel reservations recovered to over 80% of pre-pandemic levels against roughly 60% industry recovery in international air passenger volume.

2023 net revenue reached RMB44.5bn (US$6.3bn), up 122% on 2022 and well above 2019 levels, with outbound air and hotel bookings back at over 80% of pre-pandemic volume.

Livestreaming turned idle hotel inventory into immediate cash and kept Trip.com between travellers and merchants when bookings were gone.

Having the founder do the selling made it a spectacle and a signal: the company was attacking the downturn, not retrenching.

The Hong Kong listing added capital while the US listing still carried credibility; $1.09bn covered a multi-year recovery without cash-forced cuts.

Product and content investment continued through the trough, so the outbound recovery outpaced the industry once borders opened.

In a demand collapse, the winner keeps producing for customers it cannot serve yet. Livestreams kept travellers and merchants engaged, a listing bankrolled the wait.

Trip.com Group carried the livestream playbook beyond the pandemic and expanded its content-driven model across Ctrip, Trip.com, Qunar and Skyscanner, pushing into AI-assisted trip planning as travel normalised. The 2023 recovery made it one of the clearest post-COVID outperformers in global online travel, with revenue and outbound share exceeding 2019 baselines. The company also carries the sector's structural risks: it is hostage to geopolitics and Chinese consumer confidence in a way its Western rivals are not, a dependency the pandemic years made obvious.