Tuniu - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, and thank you for standing by for Tuniu's 2024 first quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference call, Director of Investor Relations, Mary.

Mary Chen (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, and welcome to our 2024 first quarter earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Donald Yu, Tuniu's Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Anqiang Chen, Tuniu's Financial Controller. For today's agenda, management will discuss business updates, operation highlights, and financial performance for the first quarter of 2024. Before we continue, I refer you to our safe harbor statement in the earnings press release, which applies to this call, as we will make forward-looking statements. Also, this call includes discussions of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this conference call are in RMB. I would now like to turn the call over to our Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Donald Yu.

Donald Yu (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)

Thank you, Mary. Good day, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. In 2024, China's travel industry continued its healthy development trend. The outbound travel market, in particular, is showing robust growth due to the resumption of flights, the introduction of visa-free policies, and to further enhance the supply chain. During this year's Spring Festival and the Labor Day holiday, the outbound travel market showed an encouraging rebound. In particular, over the Labor Day holiday, transaction volume for our outbound travel products increased by more than 200% year-over-year. In the first quarter, the company's financial performance maintained strong growth. Net revenues increased by 71% year-over-year, and the revenues from package tours grew by 107%, while our profitability continued to improve.

Our gross profit increased by 111%, and net income turned positive on a year-over-year basis, reaching RMB 22 million. This marks the first time since our listing, that we have achieved GAAP profitability in the first quarter, and our fourth consecutive quarter of profitability on a non-GAAP basis. During the first quarter, we see market development opportunities and continued to focus on enhancing our products and services, as well as development of sales channels. Our in-house package tours are one of our core competitive advantages, reflecting the growing contribution of in-house company products to our revenue and profit. We will look to increase the proportion of the in-house products in our package tours this year. During the quarter, the GMV of Niu Tour products grew by more than 60% compared to the previous quarter.

We are pleased to see that our in-house products have been very well received due to their high-quality service. This has contributed to increased repeat purchases by loyal customers and have enhanced Tuniu's brand image. We were pleased to see loyal customers contributing over 65% to our total transaction volume in the first quarter. We also continued to innovate to meet the needs of different customer growth. We upgraded our new tour products to zero shopping itineraries for tourists seeking more time for travel experience. Additionally, we introduced more private tours and small group tours, which have been well received by families and young travelers. We also add various themed tours, such as family and honeymoon packages, to attract niche customer segments.

During the first quarter, with the recovery of China's outbound travel market and the arrival of the Spring Festival travel peak, we saw an increased customer demand for diverse products. We incorporated individual flight tickets and hotel accommodations into our package tour offerings, and leveraging the flexibility and the convenience of the individual bookings. We launched more package tours to various destinations, with a particular focus on outbound tours for Asia Pacific regions during the Spring Festival travel season. In addition to improving our package tour products, we have also enhanced other travel-related products. We lowered resource costs through our centralized procurement strategy to enhance our product competitiveness. Also, we have focused on attracting and retaining customers by improving the service experience. For example, we have implemented a non-bundling, bundling policy for our flight tickets, streamlining the booking process for customer and eliminating unnecessary expenses.

By providing customers an exceptional booking experience, we have become one of the travel suppliers for Alipay transport. In terms of sales channels, we have further strengthened the development of various channels to attract new customers, while prioritizing reconnection and engagement with our existing customer base. Since the beginning of this year, our live streaming business has maintained strong growth momentum. Along with the increase in transaction volume, our verification and sales rate has also been increasing. From January to May this year, the total payment volume from Tuniu's live streaming channels increased by over 200% year-over-year, with verification volume growing by 400%. In the first quarter, our live streaming channel continued to achieve quarterly net income, making the fourth consecutive quarter of profitability. This improvement in profitability is mainly due to product optimization and enhanced competitiveness.

For our products, we have increased the supply of organized tour products at destinations on our live streaming channels this year. These products offer further enhanced flexibility, allowing guests to choose their preferred transportation and accommodations, while providing more options for FIT guests. Furthermore, we will continue to boost sales of our Niu Tour products, providing exclusive product offerings to guests, and further promoting the Niu Tour brand. To strengthen our competitiveness, we also established our own live streaming network with over 60 in-house live streaming accounts. By collaborating with over 1,000 influencers, Tuniu's MCN agency has gained advantages in selling Hotel + X products within Douyin's local lifestyle category. In the first quarter, our offline stores experienced a significant growth, with transaction volume increasing by over 200% year-over-year. As of now, we operate approximately 200 offline stores.

Our focus for this year is on expanding our offline presence in the main cities of key provinces. Our stores attract partners through diverse product selection, exceptional customer service systems, and favorable policies, working together to provide exceptional, comprehensive services for our customers. In terms of maintaining relationships with existing customers, we utilize automation technology to offer customized support. This year, we have strengthened our service for customers interested in individual travel products by providing targeted sales promotions and updates on new features. Our goal is to increase customer loyalty and encourage cross-category purchases. To prepare for the upcoming peak summer season, we extended our membership day, membership day promotions in April and May to three days, and introduce additional sales promotions to reward our customers. The transaction volume on our membership days in both April and May exceeded RMB 50 million.

Looking to technology, we leverage automation systems to refine our management process and continuously improve operational efficiency. In the first quarter, total operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues dropped 20 percentage points compared to the same period last year. On the supply side, we established a unified resource network for resource acquisition and allocation to support for centralized procurement. On the sales side, we integrated diverse and fragmented information obtained from various channels to help formulate and execute our marketing and promotion strategy. In summary, Tuniu's business and financial performance have been growing at a healthy pace this year. In response to evolving customer demands, we are always looking to enhance our products and services, aiming to provide a wider range of competitively priced offerings.

Furthermore, we will improve our revenue and profitability, demonstrating the company's value to both the market and the shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Anqiang, our Financial Controller, for the financial highlights.

Anqiang Chen (Financial Controller)

Thank you, Donald. Hello, everyone. Now, I'll walk you through our first quarter of 2024 financial results in greater detail. Please note that all monetary amounts are in RMB, unless otherwise stated. You can find the US dollar equivalents of the numbers in our earnings release. For the first quarter of 2024, net revenues were CNY 108 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 71% from the corresponding period in 2023. The increase was primarily due to the growth of package tours as the travel market recovers. Revenues from package tours were up 107% year-over-year, to CNY 83 million, and accounted for 77% of our total net revenues for the quarter. The increase was primarily due to the growth of overnight tours.

Other revenues were up 8% year-over-year to CNY 25 million and accounted for 23% of our total net revenues. The increase was primarily due to the increase in commission fees received from other travel-related products. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2024 was CNY 82 million, up 111% year-over-year. Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were CNY 69.7 million, up 25% year-over-year. Research and product development expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were CNY 13 million, down 9% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in research and product development personnel-related expenses. Sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were 36.8 million, up 84% year-over-year. The increase was primarily due to the increase in promotion expenses and sales and marketing personnel-related expenses.

General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were CNY 20.5 million, down 8% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the reversal of allowance for doubtful accounts. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of Tuniu Corporation was CNY 13.9 million in the first quarter of 2024. Non-GAAP net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of Tuniu Corporation, which excluded share-based compensation expenses and amortization of acquired intangible assets, was CNY 19.7 million in the first quarter of 2024. As of March 31st, 2024, the company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of CNY 1.2 billion. Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2024 were CNY 1.2 million.

For the second quarter of 2024, the company expects to generate CNY 114.9 million-CNY 119.9 million of net revenues, which represents a 15%-20% increase year-over-year. Please note that the forecast reflects the new current and the preliminary view on the industry and its operations, which is subject to change. Thank you for listening. We are now ready for your questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

The question-and-answer session of this conference call will start in a moment. In order to be fair to all callers who wish to ask questions, we will take one question at a time from each caller. If you have more than one question, please request to join the question queue again after your first question has been answered. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Once again, to ask a question, please press star then one. The first question today comes from Arinda Chen, who's an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you, operator. Hi, management. First of all, congratulations on this quarter's performance. For the first quarter, how about your company's performance on the outbound and domestic tourism, respectively, and what are their proportions in revenues? Can you share your outlook for the upcoming summer vacation? Do you think you will achieve profitability in the second quarter of 2024? Thank you.

Donald Yu (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)

Thank you for the question.

Operator (participant)

Pardon me. It looks like we've lost connection with our speakers. Please hold while we reconnect. Thank you very much. We've reconnected with our speakers. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Okay.

Donald Yu (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)

Thank you for the question. Both domestic and outbound tours continued to recover in the first quarter, thanks to the Spring Festival. Domestic travel market demonstrated strong growth. Trips to the Northeast China and Southern China were hot during the winter. Our domestic tours experienced double-digit growth year-over-year in the first quarter, while outbound travel increased by multiple. Due to more supply of airlines, hotels, and destination services, as well as more choice of destinations and products. APAC countries were popular in the first quarter, encouraged by short distance and warm weather, as well as visa-free policies. For revenue breakdown, domestic tours accounted for about 70% of GMV, and outbound tours 30%, increasing from over 20% in the previous quarter. For the coming summer vacation, the pent-up demand will continue to drive the growth of the market.

Summer is the peak season, mainly because of holidays for children and students. Air travel is becoming the rigid demand for many people, especially families with children. Last summer vacation was dominated by domestic travels because outbound destinations were not fully open until early August. Therefore, we expect the outbound travel will remain significant growth momentum this summer. For example, up till now, we see the booking amount for package tours to Japan in July and August has already exceeded the same period last year. But as the booking window shrinks for domestic travel and also for some outbound travel due to more favorable visa policy, we have limited visibility towards the booking date for the whole summer vacation so far. For the second quarter, net revenue growth rates slowed down compared to the first quarter due to the higher base in the second quarter last year.

Revenues from our core business package tours will have a higher growth rate than total revenues. This year, our gross margin further improved to over 70%. That's because we focus on more profitable products, like our in-house tech package tour products. Also, by utilizing system and automation techniques, our cost of revenues is well controlled. We will continue to implement strict expense control measures and try our best to achieve continuous profitability. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press Star, then one to enter the question queue. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call back over to Mary for any closing remarks.

Mary Chen (Head of Investor Relations)

Once again, thank you for joining us today. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to speaking with you in the coming months.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.