I think you have a panel today.
Revival of the consumer, correct? We're about a year and a half from the
reopening with COVID. The revival of travel, outbound travel
in particular, hasn't quite gone all the way back.
What remained the two sticking points in your view?
Sure, yeah. When we look at album travel, we look at
both demand side and a supply side. On the demand side, we already far
exceeded 2019 level based on the search volume.
On the supply side, we still have two major hurdles.
The fi
rst way is the visa application. For some regions, it's still take months
to get the visa approved. The second thing is SARS out.
The flight capacity was only 50 to 60% compared to 2019.
However, during the Chinese New Year, I think we saw a huge pickup.
So Australia, New Zealand and even South Africa, which is so far away from China,
got lots of customers. So we have made very much looking
forward to the recovery. Right.
And suffice to say, if if they remove visa requirements, for
example, do y
ou think travel immediately jumps?
For example, give me examples of and you mentioned South Africa, for example.
What are examples of places that have lifted visa restrictions and have seen a
flood of tourists? Sure.
A couple of regions are doing very well. The first is the GCC countries in the
Middle East. Dubai.
Abu Dhabi. Doha.
We saw huge pickup in this region and Saudi Arabia is also doing very well.
They offer free visa or visa upon arrival, they double the flight
capacity. So we're bringi
ng thousands of customers
over there. The second the regions are doing that
very well is Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand.
The prime minister in Thailand even went to the airport to welcome customers from
China. So all of these major measures take
place, a very important role for the recovery of the other customers from
China. Right.
And visibility around visa restrictions perhaps isn't as clear as perhaps flight
capacity. Do you think flight capacity comes back?
Where do you think flight capacity
comes back in a big way this year?
Visa needs to be cleared first, but I'm optimistic.
We saw a good influence from all the embassies because three years is a long
time. They have lots of bottleneck.
But once it's approved, it's approved forever.
So we're very positive. Hopefully this year we'll see for
recovery in outbound travel. Okay.
How about visitors from mainland China to the US, for example?
People talk about geopolitics. They draw a direct line between the
tensions between the two and t
he perceptions of travel between the two
places. What do you see an influence in future
bookings? Yeah, customers.
China is very big customers. Interest is all in all over the world.
So we still see very strong interest in different countries for different
reason. But obviously people will take into
consideration of how welcome they are in these specific countries.
For example, Switzerland used to be not in the top five destination, but this
year the visa application for Switzerland is shortened
to seven days.
So we saw a surge of travelers into Switzerland because of the policy is
Right. Right.
And you're what? What is your platform seeing as far as
future bookings? You know, the next long holiday for me,
La Chan is coming up in May. What is it like where people are looking
to go? Yeah.
So we have three long holidays, Chinese New Year, October for us to go the week
holiday and the summer holiday. During these long weekend, people tend
to go too far away. Australia, New Zealand, Africa
.
Holloway And then we also have three shorter holiday.
The first one is the spring break that's coming next week.
And then the second away is the May Labor Day weekend.
And the third away is the Dragon Boat Festival.
During those holidays, people tend to travel within China or nearby in Asia.
And what do you see? Are you seeing a pick up in bookings?
Yes. Spring break is coming up.
And on that spring, maybe the spring holiday and ultimate holiday is coming
up. Yes.
Yes. So we have see ramp up f
or our business
already. Okay.
Well, what about what about group travel, for example, because that's also
a part of your business. Group travel is also recovering nicely.
The new trend is rather than travel within 50 strangers on a big bus, now
people prefer to travel with private tours.
So a typical group travel is two families, three family.
They hire a car, hire van. They have their own family tour guide, a
driver so small, a tour tailor made A tour is very popular.
Right. And are you tailori
ng part of the
platform, of course, to those changing needs, for example?
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
We have seen new twins, for example. Young people are focusing a lot on
entertainment, wellness. So happiness.
And joyfulness is the scene. So we saw a huge pickup when there was a
Taylor Swift concerts, when there was a sports competition, and we saw a huge
amount of the people travel in to the location.
The second away is for older generation. That's the first generation who have
money or have time.
So the cruise industry is also booming
for these customers. Now, the third pass is the high net
worth. So luxury hotels, guests, health
business as well. I'm curious because the like you
mentioned, China is a big place, right? Overall, the economy doesn't seem to be
doing as well as it should be. Yet travel, to your point, seems to be
well and good. What's what's.
Help me understand the disconnect between between the two.
China is very big and so it's really depends on the line of the business
we're talking about. Certain business might have some
pressure, but if you look at travel, it's doing very well.
Entertainment, concerts, music, cinema, restaurants, those are doing very well.
Wellness are doing very well. So it's really depends on what segment
you're looking at. Okay.
But what what's what's the most expensive thing I can get on your
platform? How much is it going to cost?
The flagship pool we sail costs about 200,000 to us.
The per person, 100,000 USD, correct? Correct.
Yes. Lo
ve get.
We got we charter flight from Singapore Airlines.
We bring customers to different festivals.
So, for example, Carnival in Brazil, concerts in certain area, we try to time
it so that the customers get the best out of this tour.
We also bring customers to the landmark hotels where they have wonderful views,
wonderful festivals during their visit. 20,000.
That's not for me. Maybe Yvonne can afford that, but she'll
she'll comment in a moment. Just in the business this year, I think
revenues
doubled last year. Was a good year for you guys.
44 billion renminbi, if I'm not mistaken.
Analysts see 51 billion this year and maybe 60 billion in 2025.
Do you think that runway is achievable? Yeah, we believe in the long range.
Travel is a evergreen industry. So we look at the GDP growth rate for
about 4 to 5%, for example. And travel normally can double with that
because the population who can't afford to travel normally makes more money and
we will be able to outpace the travel industry.
So
somewhere between 15 to 20% quicker is achievable.
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