This year’s seven-day Lunar New Year holiday has been tepid for airlines, hotels, and other businesses that typically thrive during the week-long break. Many people were encouraged by the government to scrap travel plans because a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks was unfolding throughout the country.
But for those who weren’t under lockdown and still had the itch to seek new surroundings, there were other options. Bookings for weekend getaways in idyllic towns or mountain areas, road trips, and staycations at luxurious villas became the main lines of business for Trip.com, the largest online travel agency (OTA) in China.
Recently, KrASIA spoke with Trip.com’s chairman and co-founder, James Liang, who is also a research professor of applied economics at Peking University. We found out about Trip.com’s business performance over the last two years, and Liang shared his predictions for the future of China’s tourism industry.
The following interview has been edited and…
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