A summary of iFinD statistics by Securities Daily shows that nearly 80% of the listed tourism companies in China achieved growth in net profit attributable to shareholders in H1 2017, in tandem with the development of the tourism industry.
China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) data show that 2.537 billion domestic trips were made in the first half of this year, up 13.5% from the same period last year; inbound tourists grew by 2.4% to 69.5 million, and outbound tourists increased more than 3 million to 62.03 million, up 5.1% year on year.
Tourism analysts said the statistics indicate that the macro environment in the tourism sector is thriving and people’s willingness to travel is growing, and that China's tourism market is healthy and the number of overseas visitors to China is also picking up.
Nearly 80% of travel companies achieve growth in performance
Securities Daily collated the H1 results of companies that have already published their interim results. The summary shows that nearly 80% of the listed tourism companies achieved growth in net revenue in H1 2017, and BTG Hotels, Guilin Tourism, Beibu Gulf Tourism and other companies saw 500% surge in net income attributable to stakeholders. The net income of Caissa Touristic and Tempus World more than doubled while Utour’s increased by 26.58% and CITS’ by 17.47%.
According to BTG’s financial report, the company registered 71.33% increase in operating income to RMB 3.98825 billion in H1 2017, and net profit attributable to the parent company grew RMB 226.77 million to RMB 240.72 million, an increase of 1626.29%. The acquisition of Homeinns Hotels in April 2016 contributed RMB 249.5 million to the RMB 185.93 million net income attributable to the parent company in H1 2017.
Unlike BTG Hotels that chalked up growth through acquisitions, a number of listed tourism conglomerates achieved remarkable performance through tapping into tourism resources. Caissa, for example, grew its operating revenue by 30.84% to RMB 3.405 billion and net income attributable to equity holders by 136.11% to RMB 134 million, while its tourism business revenue was RMB 2.92 billion, up 31.74%.
Caissa attributed the growth to its response to the "Belt and Road" initiative by further exploring the tourism resources along the Silk Road and introducing group tours, independent tours, private group tours, cruise tours, theme tours and other business.
NASDAQ-listed online travel companies also reported positive results. Ctrip’s received RMB 327 million in net income attributable to its shareholders for the second quarter, almost tripled from Q1. Tuniu’s net revenues for Q2 this year increased 53.8% to RMB 460.1 million and net gross profit increased 84.5% to RMB 240.6 million compared to the same period last year, while its revenues from packaged tours increased 57.7% to RMB 339.3 million.
"Tourism Plus" continues to thrive
China Tourism Academy projects in the 2017 China City Summer Tourism Development Report that travel interest of urban and rural resident in the third quarter of 2017 will continue to grow to the level of 84.9%, which indicate sustained growth for the tourism industry.
Against this backdrop, integration in the tourism industry is accelerating, and listed companies are speeding up their transformation and upgrading as they continue to explore diversification in the “Tourism Plus” model. Guilin Tourism reported that its operating income grew by 28.49% to RMB 261.607 million in the first half of 2017, while operating profit increased RMB 37.4312 million to RMB 27.7798 million and net income attributable to shareholders was RMB 29.1261 million, up 529.79%.
CYTS reported that its operating revenue was stable at RMB 4.761 billion in the first half of this year and net profit attributable to shareholders increased 9% to RMB 347 million from the same period last year, which was attributed to the expansion of “Tourism + Sports”, “Tourism + Education”, “Tourism + Health” and other emerging industry formats.
Tempus World’s interim results reported 166.83% growth in operating income to RMB 1.403115 billion, and net income attributable to the parent company owner increased 108.30% to RMB 162.4296 million. The growth was said to be a result of its "Tourism + Internet + Finance" strategy and the mega-tourism ecosystem.
