Sharing at the event, Mr. Boon Sian Chai, CEO and Vice President of International Markets, said that Vietnam, along with Indonesia and the Philippines, are the markets in the Group's next investment phase.
Particularly in Vietnam, this platform is focusing on investing in supply, meaning increasing the services it can provide, while expanding the size of its team. "Over the past year, we have opened an office in Hanoi and are planning to open another office in Danang, if possible," said Mr. Chai.
The company is the largest online travel service provider (OTA) in China and the third largest in the world by scale. Listed on the Nasdaq, as of May 28, the company's capitalization reached 43.33 billion USD, after Booking Holdings (178.4 billion USD) and Airbnb (79.66 billion USD).
The platform has been providing services to the Vietnamese market since before Covid-19 and has begun to have a strong presence in recent years, especially in 2024 with a series of investment and cooperation decisions. Accordingly, in July 2024, they invested in the M Village hotel chain, which was founded by former Coffee House CEO Nguyen Hai Ninh.
"This is currently the most effective hotel chain on our platform," Mr. Chai commented. According to DealStreetAsia, the investment capital of this deal is 10 million USD.
Last year, the group also joined hands with Vietjet and established a strategic partnership with Vinpearl. During a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) in early 2024, Trip CEO Jane Sun expressed her desire to find investment opportunities, participate in and expand the Vietnamese tourism market.
The strong acceleration of Vietnam's tourism industry is one of the reasons why the Chinese tourism giant wants to increase its presence. In the first four months of the year, Vietnam welcomed 7.67 million international visitors, up 23.8% over the same period in 2024, according to the General Statistics Office. China is the largest market with 1.95 million visitors, accounting for 25.4%.
"Considering Vietnam from a destination perspective, we have recorded strong demand growth, almost reaching the triple-digit threshold. This market is developing very positively," said Mr. Chai. On the platform alone, the main sources of visitors to Vietnam are South Korea, Russia (during peak season), Taiwan and China. "Customers are very impressed with the services from the Vietnamese market," he said.
Vietnam's online travel market is also growing by double digits, increasing from 4 billion USD in 2023 to 5 billion USD in 2024, equivalent to 16%, according to Google, Temasek, Bain & Company. The market is forecast to expand to 10 billion USD by the end of this decade. According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence (India), Vietnam's online travel market will grow by an average of 10% in the period 2025 - 2030, in the top 5 in Asia - Pacific.
Although there is a lot of potential, Mr. Boon Sian Chai also assessed that Vietnam has differences, from market structure, demographics, language to payment methods. Therefore, in addition to applying some lessons learned in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, the group must learn and try to optimize.
"But it must be affirmed that we will continue to invest in this market to develop, both attracting international visitors to Vietnam, promoting domestic tourism, and bringing visitors to the world," said Mr. Chai.
Operating in 39 markets, Trip recorded revenue of 53.29 billion yuan (7.5 billion USD) in 2024, up 19.73% compared to 2023, with EBITA profit of more than 13 billion yuan (1.82 billion USD), up nearly 24%. Last year, the international market brought in 10% of revenue. CEO Jane Sun expects the proportion to reach 20% or more in the next 3-5 years.