Tongcheng HopeGoo Inbound Orders +157%: An OTA Platform Verifies the Inbound-Tourism Demand Surge — The Complete Evidence Chain from Policy to Consumption to Platform Demand

1.1 Overall Financial Performance: Revenue Approaching the RMB10 Billion Mark, Profit Growth Outpacing Revenue

On 24 August, Tongcheng Travel released its Q2 and H1 2026 results. In the first half, Tongcheng Travel generated revenue of RMB9.99 billion, up 10.5% year-on-year, approaching the RMB10 billion mark; adjusted net profit reached RMB1.79 billion, up 14.6%, with profit growth outpacing revenue growth; adjusted EBITDA reached RMB2.66 billion, up 13.5%, with the margin improving from 25.9% to 26.6%. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25; Source: Sina Finance · Consumer Finance, 2026-08-25

The structural change is worth noting: in Q2, single-quarter revenue growth slowed to 6.8% — the first time since 2023 that single-quarter revenue growth fell to single digits. Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 2026-08-24; Source: Sina Finance · Consumer Finance This interim report, in which "revenue approaching RMB10 billion" coexists with "growth gear-shifting", presents a clear "new-old momentum handover": the old drivers (mass-market traffic growth, transportation ticketing) are slowing, while the new drivers (hotel management, inbound tourism, deepening user value) are taking over.

For the CTP Research Department, this is precisely why this blog chooses Tongcheng Travel's earnings as its entry point: a report showing a "new-old momentum handover" actually illuminates the growth curve of inbound tourism — the new momentum — with particular clarity. When the domestic tourism market is slowing, inbound tourism's +157% order growth becomes the brightest incremental narrative in the report.

1.2 The Three Business Lines: Transportation Under Pressure, Accommodation Steady, Other Business Leading

By segment, Tongcheng Travel's H1 revenue structure shows a clear "hot-cold split":

• Transportation ticketing revenue of RMB3.96 billion, +2.1%: Rising oil prices pushed up air-travel costs and fuel surcharges, making airfares expensive and dampening long-haul travel demand; transportation ticketing growth slowed markedly. Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 2026-08-24; Source: Securities Daily
• Accommodation reservation revenue of RMB2.85 billion, +11.1%: Driven by higher average daily rate (ADR) and more room nights sold, the share of high-quality hotel room nights on the platform rose further, and international hotel daily room nights hit a new high. Source: Beijing Business Today, 2026-08-24; Source: Securities Daily
• Other revenue (including hotel management) of RMB1.99 billion, +46.3%: Growth far outpaced the core OTA business, making this the true growth engine of H1; in Q2 alone, this line reached RMB1.025 billion, up 35.7%. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25

"The hot-cold contrast between the two traditional main businesses is a microcosm of the current shift in tourism consumption structure — flights are getting more expensive while accommodation is getting better," Guandian wrote in its analysis. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance For the CTP Research Department, the steady growth of the accommodation segment (+11.1%) and the phrase "international hotel room nights hit a new high" directly echo the surge in inbound orders — inbound passenger growth is being converted into real accommodation bookings on OTA platforms.

1.3 The User Base: Volume Plateaus, but Value Deepens

User data is the most noteworthy part of this interim report:

• Annual paying users of 254 million and 2.04 billion cumulative service trips: For the twelve months ended 30 June 2026, annual paying users reached 253.9 million, up 0.9%; cumulative service trips over twelve months reached 2.04 billion, up 2.7%. Source: Securities Daily; Source: Guandian / Sina Finance; Source: Eastmoney Fortune, 2026-08-25
• Consumption frequency per user up 1.8% and annual ARPU up 10.3%: Both per-user consumption frequency and ARPU rose, signalling that Tongcheng is using "deepening user value" to offset "plateauing user numbers". Source: Securities Daily; Source: Guandian / Sina Finance
• H1 average monthly paying users (MPU) of 45.1 million, -3.0%; Q2 MPU of 43.7 million, -5.8%: The decline in monthly paying users reflects growth gear-shifting after the traffic dividend peaked. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance; Source: The Paper
• Over 87% of registered users come from non-tier-1 cities in China: The mass-tourism base is solid, and membership programmes and exclusive benefits continue to lift repeat purchase and loyalty among high-value users. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance; Source: Eastmoney Fortune

For the inbound-tourism industry, the combination of "average MPU -3.0%" and "ARPU +10.3%" is highly meaningful: domestic traffic has plateaued, which means OTAs must seek growth from "international traffic + high-value travellers" — HopeGoo's +102% consumers and +157% inbound orders are the natural result of this logic. When a platform enters the intensive-growth phase in its home market, the "external increment" market of inbound tourism becomes a battleground.

1.4 Industry Backdrop: The Contrast Between "Dual-Slowdown" Domestic Travel and Inbound Tourism

The macro backdrop for this earnings report is the "dual slowdown" in China's H1 2026 domestic tourism data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism: domestic residents made 3.463 billion trips in H1 2026, up 5.4%, and spent RMB3.21 trillion, up 2.0% — both indicators decelerating. Source: CCTV / Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2026-08-07; Source: Southern Metropolis Daily At the same time, rising fuel surcharges pushed up airfares, and frequent extreme weather during summer further dampened long-haul domestic travel demand.

It is against this backdrop that Tongcheng Travel's inbound business (HopeGoo orders +157%) forms a sharp growth contrast with the domestic market (+5.4% trips, +2.0% spending). When the "internal circulation" slows, "inbound tourism" as an external-demand increment is becoming the next high ground contested by OTAs and the entire culture-tourism value chain.

1.5 Company Expansion Backdrop: Completion of the Didi Chuxing Tender Offer (Context Only)

As part of Tongcheng Travel's multi-year vertical integration, on 21 August it completed its tender offer for Didi Chuxing through its wholly owned subsidiary eLong, Inc., with 88.74% acceptance, further completing the "large transportation → micro transportation" mobility puzzle — cited here only as company expansion background, not as an argument of this blog. Source: Sina Finance / Caiwen, 2026-08-21; Source: Shanghai Securities News · China Securities Network, 2026-06-30

2.1 The Hard Data: Paying Consumers +102%, Inbound Orders +157%

The core highlight of this blog comes from the international-travel-market statement in Tongcheng Travel's Q2 and H1 2026 results. Multiple mainstream media outlets cited the same set of figures in their coverage:

> "As China continues to expand its visa-free 'circle of friends' and optimise inbound-facilitation measures, inbound tourism has become an incremental market with considerable imagination. In Q2 2026, paying consumers on HopeGoo, Tongcheng Travel's international travel platform, grew 102% year-on-year, and inbound-tourism consumption order volume surged 157% year-on-year." Source: The Paper, 2026-08-24

This set of figures is fully consistent across Securities Daily, Beijing Business Today, Southern Metropolis Daily and Guandian/Sina Finance — a "hard number" verified through multiple independent sources. Source: Securities Daily, 2026-08-25; Source: Beijing Business Today, 2026-08-24; Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 2026-08-24; Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25

The CTP Research Department defines "orders +157%" as "platform-grade hard evidence" because it satisfies three conditions at once:

1. Authoritative subject: HopeGoo is an international travel platform disclosed in Tongcheng Travel's official earnings report; the data comes from listed-company information disclosure channels rather than third-party estimates;

1. Traceable basis: "Paying consumers +102%" and "inbound-tourism consumption order volume +157%" come from the same paragraph of the same report and are cross-cited by multiple independent media;

1. Verifiable direction: The data is fully consistent with the direction of inbound-tourism policies and passenger flows documented in past CTP blog posts over the past year — policy-side easing came first, order-side explosion followed.

2.2 The Demand-Side Evidence Chain: Policy → Consumption → Platform Demand

Placing this blog within the CTP inbound-tourism series story chain, HopeGoo's 157% happens to be the "final link" of the evidence chain:

• Policy side (Blog 57, published 2026): The 240-hour transit visa-free expansion policy was released, and the visa-free "circle of friends" continued to expand, lowering the threshold for foreign travellers to visit China at the institutional level — this is the "trigger" of the demand surge;
• Consumption side (Blog 59, published 2026): In the first weekend after the 240-hour transit visa-free policy was implemented, inbound passenger flows at various ports visibly increased, and CTP documented this micro-evidence of "policy implementation equals immediate passenger-flow release" through port passenger-flow verification;
• Consumption side (Blog 60, published 2026): Shanghai launched an inbound city tourism joint marketing campaign, turning "arrival check-in, city walk, departure reward" into a full-chain consumption experience, verifying the consumption momentum of inbound travellers moving from "can they come" to "will they spend";
• Platform demand side (this edition, Blog 61, August 2026): Tongcheng HopeGoo provides hard data in official earnings — "inbound-tourism consumption order volume +157%, paying consumers +102%". When a leading OTA platform serving more than 2 billion trips a year records triple-digit order growth, the inbound-tourism demand surge is no longer a "trend judgement" but a "balance-sheet fact".

The complete closure of this evidence chain is precisely the theme of this blog — "an OTA platform verifies the inbound-tourism demand surge". For the CTP Research Department, every policy node and every set of port passenger-flow figures recorded in past blog posts is now corroborated in an OTA platform's order data.

2.3 Structural Features of the Demand Surge: From "Sightseeing" to "Deep Stays"

HopeGoo's 157% order growth is not simply "more people coming to China" — it carries multiple structural-upgrade signals. Combining the earnings disclosure with other public data, the CTP Research Department identifies three structural features:

Feature one: inbound summer cooling has become an independently scaled niche track. In the same period as the earnings report, data provided by Tongcheng Travel to Guancha showed that foreign tourists travelling to China for summer cooling has become a new highlight of the inbound market this summer, with the booking heat of flights from European cities such as Edinburgh and Madrid to Chinese summer-cooling destinations up more than 80% year-on-year; HopeGoo data showed that European inbound summer visitors stayed an average of more than 3 days in hotels, nearly one day above the overall inbound average; in core cool-climate destinations such as Lijiang, more than half of European visitors stayed 4 or more days. Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25 This means inbound tourism is upgrading from "check-in sightseeing" to "deep stays and summer living", with both ticket price and length of stay rising together.

Feature two: both international flights and accommodation grew strongly. The earnings report noted that international air-ticket revenue maintained strong growth momentum in Q2 and that international hotel room nights grew markedly. Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 2026-08-24 The dual growth of international air tickets (the traffic entry point) and international hotels (the accommodation receiving layer) works in tandem with HopeGoo's order growth.

Feature three: destinations are moving down-market. Besides tier-1 cities, inbound flight passenger flows to Chengdu, Urumqi, Xi'an, Guiyang and Harbin all grew to varying degrees, indicating that the inbound-tourism dividend is spreading from gateway cities to emerging destinations. Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25 This is highly aligned with the destination structure that CTP has been cultivating across its four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan) — Yunnan's summer-cooling destinations, Hunan's landscapes, Guangdong's urban culture and Jiangsu-Zhejiang's water towns are all beneficiaries of the destination down-market trend.

2.4 Dual Significance for OTAs and the Industry: The "Hedging" of Soft Outbound and Surging Inbound

In interpreting the HopeGoo data, Guandian highlighted a key detail: in the same earnings report in which outbound group tours were weak, the high growth of inbound tourism formed a natural hedge. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25 The earnings report showed that the vacation business segment declined 3.8% in H1, mainly due to geopolitical uncertainty and high airfares suppressing outbound group-tour demand; meanwhile, inbound orders +157% provided the platform with a second engine to hedge against downward pressure.

The CTP Research Department believes this "hedging" structure has universal implications for the industry:

• For OTA platforms: When outbound tourism is suppressed by external factors, inbound tourism as "reverse-direction traffic" becomes a new growth pole; platforms use international platforms such as HopeGoo to receive overseas users' demand for visiting China, achieving rebalancing of the traffic structure;
• For ground service providers: Order-side explosion at OTAs means overseas travellers are being converted on a large scale into "domestic demand in China" through platforms, creating direct increments for travel agencies, ground operators, guides and hotels;
• For destinations: The down-market drift of inbound orders means destination marketing can no longer focus only on gateway cities, but must seize the order dividend brought by "policy openness + platform distribution".

2.5 Policy Evolution Backdrop: From "One-Way Openness" to "Two-Way Flow"

HopeGoo's +157% order explosion cannot be separated from China's sustained evolution of inbound policies over the past year or more. As policy-background context (without listing country categories), the CTP Research Department summarises the key nodes:

• Transit visa-free expansion: China has continuously optimised its transit visa-free policy, significantly expanding the scope of the 240-hour transit visa-free policy, under which eligible nationals holding ordinary passports and connecting tickets can stay visa-free for up to 240 hours (10 days) when transiting China to a third country/region — this is the policy node recorded in CTP Blog 57 and the "master trigger" of the inbound-demand surge;
• Unilateral visa-free expansion: China has implemented unilateral visa-free entry for nationals of multiple countries, significantly lowering the threshold for foreign tourists holding ordinary passports to visit China;
• Inbound-facilitation measures: A package of measures — including payment facilitation (card for large amounts, mobile payment for small amounts, cash as fallback), language services (multilingual signage, AI translation) and visa facilitation — forms the institutional foundation of "easier to arrive, smoother to spend".

This series of policy evolutions precisely explains two features of the HopeGoo order data: first, the visa-free "circle of friends" expansion brings "incremental travellers" rather than a reallocation of existing travellers — which is why paying consumers could grow 102% year-on-year; second, the inbound-facilitation measures solved the experience problem of "what to do after arrival" — which is why order volume (not just headcount) could grow 157% year-on-year. Every time the policy side opens another door, the platform side gains more orders. This is the transmission mechanism from "policy side to platform demand side". The reason the CTP Research Department has continued to track policy implementation effects since Blog 57 is precisely to verify whether this transmission mechanism truly happens — and this edition's HopeGoo data provides the most powerful affirmative answer.

3.1 "Other Revenue" +46.3%: The Third Growth Pillar

While HopeGoo surges on the demand side, Tongcheng Travel has also completed an important capability reserve on the supply side. In H1, "other revenue" including hotel management grew 46.3% year-on-year to RMB1.99 billion, far outpacing the core OTA business and becoming the third pillar alongside the "two wheels" of transportation ticketing and accommodation reservation. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25; Source: Beijing Business Today, 2026-08-24

3.2 Elong Hotel Technology + Wanda Hotels: 3,500+ in Operation, 2,000+ Under Preparation

The earnings report showed that, as of the end of Q2 2026, Elong Hotel Technology and Wanda Hotels & Resorts together had more than 3,500 hotels in operation, with more than 2,000 under preparation. Source: Beijing Business Today, 2026-08-24; Source: Sina Finance · Consumer Finance, 2026-08-25

Among these, the acquisition of Wanda Hotel Management was a key step in the supply-side layout: in April 2024, Tongcheng Travel announced the RMB2.479 billion acquisition of Wanda Hotel Management; the deal closed in October 2025, bringing in 204 operating and 376 to-be-opened upscale hotels. After being integrated into the Tongcheng system, Wanda Hotels achieved system connectivity and membership interoperability with Tongcheng, and new projects signed in Q1 2026 covered Xinjiang, Tibet and Yunnan. Source: Guandian / Sina Finance, 2026-08-25; Source: 10jqka Finance, 2026-04-18

For the inbound-tourism industry, the significance of this layout is: when inbound orders are exploding at 157% on the demand side, whoever has the accommodation-receiving capability on the supply side will capture the biggest order dividend. Through Elong Hotel Technology (a "water-drop-shaped" brand matrix covering upscale, upper-midscale, midscale and light-midscale segments) plus Wanda's upscale hotels (204 operating + 376 to-be-opened), Tongcheng has built a complete accommodation-receiving network from economy to upscale segments. Source: CPPCC News, 2026-04-23

3.3 The "Demand-Supply" Loop: The Supply-Side Logic of Inbound Accommodation Receiving

Reading HopeGoo's demand-side data together with the supply-side layout of hotel management, the CTP Research Department draws a clear conclusion: Tongcheng is building a "demand-supply" dual-wheel loop for inbound tourism —

| Dimension | Demand Side (HopeGoo) | Supply Side (Hotel Management)

|-----------|----------------------|--------------------------------

| H1 2026 performance | Inbound orders +157%, paying consumers +102% | Other revenue +46.3% to RMB1.99B

| Core capability | International traffic distribution, inbound order receiving | 3,500+ operating hotels, 2,000+ under preparation

| Upscale supply | International hotel daily room nights at new high | Wanda 204 operating + 376 to-be-opened upscale hotels

| Digitisation | DeepTrip AI itinerary planning | Elong Hotel Technology PMS, supply-chain digitisation

Inbound order growth ultimately lands on "where to stay". OTAs bring overseas travellers in, and the hotel-management business ensures "there is a place to stay, it is comfortable, and they stay longer" — the two together form the conversion chain of inbound tourism from "traffic" to "retention". For ground service providers in CTP's four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan), this logic applies equally: to receive the inbound increment, one must both grasp the distribution channels on the demand side and prepare accommodation and on-the-ground service resources on the supply side.

From the perspective of cross-verification, the growth of HopeGoo's inbound orders and the growth of Tongcheng's accommodation business show obvious co-movement: H1 accommodation revenue of RMB2.85 billion, +11.1%, driven by higher ADR and more room nights; Q2 international hotel daily room nights hit a new high; meanwhile, HopeGoo European summer visitors stayed an average of more than 3 days, nearly one day above the overall average, with more than half of European visitors in Lijiang staying 4+ days. Source: Beijing Business Today, 2026-08-24; Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25 The micro-behaviour of inbound travellers "staying longer and staying better" is the accommodation-side embodiment of triple-digit order growth — demand-side and supply-side data corroborate each other, further enhancing the credibility of this report's core figures.

Section 4. AI Technology: Digitising Inbound Tourism Services

If HopeGoo solves the "demand-side orders" problem of inbound tourism and hotel management solves the "supply-side accommodation" problem, then the AI technology layout solves the "service-side experience" problem. The earnings report and Tongcheng Travel's public information show that Tongcheng is systematically dismantling the three major pain points of inbound tourism — language, planning and experience — with AI.

4.1 DeepTrip: The AI Itinerary-Planning Agent with 10 Million+ Global Cumulative Visits

DeepTrip is Tongcheng Travel's AI smart travel-planning assistant and the front-desk entry point for digitised inbound services. According to the earnings report and media coverage, the upgraded DeepTrip has surpassed 10 million global cumulative visits, supports interaction in 17 languages, can generate multi-theme itineraries based on user preferences, allows one-click AI recalculation of optimal routes after edits, and can parse fuzzy flight requests and provide solutions within 5 seconds. Source: Southern Metropolis Daily, 2026-08-24; Source: China News Service Hainan, 2026-04-15

For the inbound-tourism industry, DeepTrip's value lies in solving the two pain points of "hard to find information" and "hard to plan itineraries" for foreign travellers — an overseas visitor only needs to state a need in their mother tongue, and the AI completes the one-stop loop from itinerary planning to flight, hotel and ticket booking, dramatically lowering the decision threshold for "visiting China on a self-guided tour". This is fully consistent with the CTP series' long-held judgement that "inbound tourism must lower decision costs".

4.2 "AI Face-to-Face Translation Screen" and "AI Guided Tour": Deployment in Scenic Spots and Counter Scenarios

At the sixth China International Consumer Products Expo (Hainan) in April 2026, Tongcheng Travel launched several key products focused on inbound tourism and smart-culture-tourism scenarios:

• AI face-to-face translation screen: Adopting a dual-screen interaction design to avoid frequent device passing, with 0.5-second response speed, supporting more than 150 languages and 27 Chinese dialects. It can be applied in hotel front desks, scenic-area counters and exhibition consultation scenarios to solve cross-language communication difficulties; Source: China News Service Hainan, 2026-04-15
• AI guided tour: Built on the concept of "one phone, one scan, full-journey AI companionship", visitors need not download an app — scanning a code provides HD maps, real-time location navigation and multi-style voice commentary, along with interactive features such as AI travel photography and check-in stamp collecting. The product has been deployed in multiple well-known scenic areas including Yalong Bay Rainforest Cultural Tourism Zone in Hainan, Prince Gong's Mansion in Beijing, Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin and Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu. Source: China News Service Hainan, 2026-04-15; Source: Hong Net, 2026-04-14

Notably, the four scenic areas where the AI guided tour has been deployed — Yalong Bay (rainforest ecology), Prince Gong's Mansion (royal garden), Elephant Trunk Hill (landscape) and Wuhou Shrine (humanities) — cover four core inbound-tourism scenario types: ecology, culture, landscape and humanities. This is highly isomorphic with the landscape-culture resource structure of CTP's four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan), and provides a standardised template reference of "AI tools + ground services" for CTP's ground service providers.

4.3 Among the First OTAs to Integrate with the WeChat AI Assistant: Digital Layout of Traffic Entry Points

In June 2026, after WeChat released its "Guidelines for Developers to Access the WeChat AI Ecosystem", Tongcheng Travel announced it would become one of the first online travel platforms (OTAs) to fully integrate with the WeChat AI agent ecosystem. In the future, users will be able to make travel requests through the WeChat AI agent via voice commands or text input, with AI completing itinerary planning and enabling comparison, decision-making and booking of travel products; Tongcheng's booking services for flights, train tickets, hotels, tickets and vacation products will be simultaneously integrated into the WeChat AI agent ecosystem. Source: Guangzhou Daily New Flower City, 2026-06-10

For inbound tourism, the significance of "being among the first OTAs to integrate with the WeChat AI assistant" is: WeChat is a national-level application ecosystem that foreign travellers use with high frequency after arriving in China. Once the AI assistant is connected, inbound travellers can complete the entire process from planning to booking within the most familiar super-app — equivalent to "front-loading" the OTA's inbound service capability to the source of traffic. The CTP Research Department judges that this "AI + super-app + OTA" tripartite linkage will be an important form of future digitised inbound-tourism services.

4.4 How AI Reconstructs the Inbound Service Chain: From "Point Tools" to "Full-Journey Companionship"

Looking at DeepTrip, the AI translation screen, the AI guided tour and the WeChat AI integration together, Tongcheng's AI layout already covers the full inbound service chain:

| Service Stage | AI Tool | Pain Point Solved

|---------------|---------|-------------------

| Pre-trip planning | DeepTrip agent | Hard to find information, cumbersome planning, language barriers

| On-arrival communication | AI face-to-face translation screen | Cross-language communication at hotel front desks and scenic counters

| On-site experience | AI guided tour | Route planning, multilingual commentary, interactive check-ins

| Booking conversion | WeChat AI agent integration | One-stop loop from planning to booking

As Tongcheng Travel stated at the expo, the company aims to upgrade from "tool-type services" to "a full-journey travel companion". For the inbound-tourism value chain, AI is transforming "serving inbound travellers" from a labour-intensive process into an "AI + human" hybrid model — this will significantly reduce the marginal receiving cost for ground operators, scenic areas and hotels, and amplify the service-receiving capacity that comes with inbound order growth. Source: China News Service Hainan, 2026-04-15

5.1 Industry Context: OTAs Are Collectively Racing into Inbound Tourism

Tongcheng is not the only OTA stepping up its inbound efforts. As an already-public industry fact: on 1 June 2026, Ctrip Group announced it would invest RMB15 billion in special funds over the next five years for the global promotion of Chinese culture and tourism, targeting the introduction of 200 million international visitors and aiming to make China the world's top inbound destination. Source: Guangming Daily, 2026-06-01; Source: Sina Finance · Yicai, 2026-06-01 (Cited here only as one-sentence industry context, not expanded as an argument of this blog)

When leading OTA platforms — whether Ctrip's billion-level marketing investment or Tongcheng's HopeGoo +157% order performance — are both betting on inbound tourism with real money, a clear industry signal has emerged: inbound tourism has moved from the "policy dividend" stage into the "platform commercialisation" stage, and OTAs are becoming the largest distribution hub for inbound demand.

5.2 The Three Logics Behind OTAs Racing into Inbound Tourism

The CTP Research Department believes that the collective OTA rush into inbound tourism is driven by the superimposition of three industrial logics:

1. Demand logic: Inbound demand has moved from "policy-driven" into the "order explosion" stage — Tongcheng HopeGoo's +157% is a balance-sheet fact, not a forecast;

1. Traffic logic: With the domestic traffic dividend plateauing (average MPU -3.0%), OTAs need to seek increments from "international traffic"; inbound tourism is a natural second growth curve;

1. Service logic: AI technology (DeepTrip, translation screen, AI guided tour) has dramatically lowered the marginal cost of serving inbound travellers, enabling OTAs to receive overseas travellers at scale.

From the competitive-landscape perspective, the OTA rush into inbound tourism is changing how industry resources are allocated: on the one hand, platforms compete for overseas traffic through "standard products" such as international flights, international hotels and cross-border payments; on the other hand, platforms build "full-chain" capabilities through hotel management (such as Tongcheng's acquisition of Wanda Hotels), AI tools and overseas marketing. This means the value of the inbound-tourism value chain is evolving from "single-channel distribution" towards the trinity of "demand distribution + supply integration + service digitisation". For ground service providers, understanding how OTAs play is understanding the direction of inbound order flow — wherever the platform directs orders, that is where ground receivers should allocate resources.

5.3 CTP's Four-Province Opportunity: The "Ground-Receiving Dividend" After the Platform Demand Surge

For the four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan) where CTP has long cultivated, the opportunities brought by the OTA order-side explosion are structural:

• Yunnan: Summer-cooling living and deep-stay travellers are growing significantly — HopeGoo data shows European summer visitors stayed an average of 3+ days and more than half of European visitors in Lijiang stayed 4+ days; Yunnan's snow mountains, old towns and lakes are the core receiving areas for "deep-stay" inbound tourism;
• Guangdong: Guangzhou and Shenzhen are inbound gateway hubs; HopeGoo order growth, combined with the Guangzhou "Ticket Link" voucher model (redemption rate close to 100%), validates the "port + consumption" conversion logic; Source: Securities Daily
• Hunan: Destinations such as Zhangjiajie are high-frequency choices for European travellers; inbound passenger flows and orders are growing in tandem, upgrading from "sightseeing" to "deep experiences";
• Jiangsu-Zhejiang: The Shanghai/Hangzhou gateway plus Suzhou-Hangzhou water-town combination receives business travellers and family travellers, and is the most mature market for "inbound consumption" conversion.

OTAs distribute overseas orders, and ultimately the "ground receivers" — ground operators, travel agencies, guides, hotels and scenic areas — must deliver the services. The CTP Research Department judges that the biggest beneficiaries of the OTA order-side explosion will be those ground service providers that coordinate with platforms and possess high-quality delivery capability — this is precisely where the value of CTP's four-province cultivation lies.

From the perspective of implementation paths, CTP recommends that practitioners in the four provinces receive this wave of "platform order dividends" in three steps: Step one, enter the pool — proactively connect with the inbound supply systems of HopeGoo, Ctrip International and other platforms, and list destination products in the OTAs' international order pools; Step two, build products — around the verified demand themes of "deep stays, summer living, landscape culture and water-town consumption", combine scattered resources into standardised products that can be booked and quoted (refer to the three flagship routes in this edition); Step three, upgrade experience — introduce AI translation and AI guided tour tools to lower service costs while strengthening personalised capabilities that OTAs cannot replace, such as on-the-ground commentary, cultural experiences and emergency services. After these three steps, ground receivers can genuinely convert the demand surge verified by OTAs into their own orders and revenue.

Section 6. CTP Flagship Route Design: Three "OTA Inbound Demand Surge" Receiving Routes

Combining this edition's demand-side surge signal (HopeGoo orders +157%) with CTP's deep cultivation of its four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan), the CTP Research Department has designed three flagship routes to receive the inbound order increment (each with origin-destination-theme, for global inbound operators and travel agencies to combine):

Route 1: Yunnan "Cool China" Summer-Living Route — Kunming Entry · Lijiang-Shangri-La Deep Stays

• Chinese name: "清凉中国"滇西北避暑旅居线 (Cool China Northwest Yunnan Summer-Living Route)
• Origin: Kunming Changshui International Airport (European and US travellers connect via Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other hubs; Southeast Asian travellers fly direct)
• Destination: Kunming — Lijiang — Shangri-La (Dali optional)
• Theme: Highland summer cooling + Naxi Dongba culture + snow mountains and lakes + slow old-town living
• Receiving logic: HopeGoo data shows European summer visitors stayed an average of 3+ days in hotels, with more than half of European visitors in Lijiang staying 4+ days; this route is designed around "stay one more night, stay deeper", turning European summer-cooling travellers from "passing through" into "living in"; Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25
• Supporting services: multilingual AI guided-tour commentary, Naxi intangible-heritage handicraft experiences, snow-mountain-view hotels, full coverage of foreign-card payment.

Route 2: Guangdong "Gourmet Lingnan" Inbound Consumption Route — Guangzhou Entry · Pearl River Delta Urban Culture

• Chinese name: "食在岭南"珠三角入境消费线 (Gourmet Lingnan Pearl River Delta Inbound Consumption Route)
• Origin: Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport (direct or connecting flights for Southeast Asian and Western travellers)
• Destination: Guangzhou — Foshan — Zhuhai (Shunde, Zhaoqing optional)
• Theme: Cantonese cuisine + intangible-heritage lion dance + Lingnan gardens + coastal leisure
• Receiving logic: Guangdong is an inbound gateway hub; the Guangzhou "Ticket Link" culture-tourism voucher campaign integrated by Tongcheng achieved a redemption rate close to 100%, validating the "flight + accommodation + consumption" conversion chain; this route converts the order traffic distributed by OTA platforms into an integrated "food, accommodation, transport, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment" urban consumption experience; Source: Securities Daily, 2026-08-25
• Supporting services: Cantonese restaurant reservations, intangible-heritage workshop experiences, bilingual city-walk guides, connectivity with departure-consumption facilitation.

Route 3: Hunan "World-Class Landscapes" Zhangjiajie Route — Changsha Entry · Wulingyuan-Tianmen World Heritage Peaks

• Chinese name: "山水国际"湘西张家界世界遗产线 (World-Class Landscapes Western Hunan Zhangjiajie World Heritage Route)
• Origin: Changsha Huanghua International Airport (connecting via Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen hubs) and Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport (a port covered by the 240-hour transit visa-free policy)
• Destination: Changsha — Zhangjiajie (Wulingyuan, Tianmen Mountain, Grand Canyon) — Fenghuang Ancient Town (optional)
• Theme: World-class peak forest + Tujia folk culture + summer cooling + night-time performances
• Receiving logic: Zhangjiajie is a high-frequency landscape destination for European travellers; this summer both inbound passenger flows and orders grew in tandem, and the city has built a "card for large amounts, mobile scan for small amounts, cash as fallback" payment system plus a multilingual commentary system; this route connects with OTA international orders and highlights the dual label of "peak forest wonder + ethnic culture"; Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25
• Supporting services: multilingual guides, Tujia intangible-heritage live performances, canyon night tours, AI voice navigation.

Route 4: Jiangsu-Zhejiang "Misty Water Towns" Inbound Consumption Route — Hangzhou Entry · Suzhou-Hangzhou Gardens & Water Towns

• Chinese name: "烟雨水乡"苏杭园林水乡线 (Misty Water Towns Suzhou-Hangzhou Gardens & Water-Towns Route)
• Origin: Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Shanghai Pudong/Hongqiao International Airports (European and US business FIT travellers and families)
• Destination: Hangzhou — Suzhou (Wuzhen, Zhouzhuang water towns optional)
• Theme: Jiangnan gardens + canal culture + silk and tea + refined slow living
• Receiving logic: Jiangsu-Zhejiang receives the inbound-consumption momentum of the Shanghai gateway; the new high in HopeGoo international hotel room nights shows inbound accommodation bookings are continuing to scale; this route converts OTA orders into high-ticket, in-depth experiences of "gardens + water towns + tea tasting", matching the consumption preferences of European and US business-leisure travellers;
• Supporting services: night tours of gardens, silk workshop experiences, tea-ceremony courses, direct bookings with international hotels.

Flagship Route Summary

| Route | Chinese Name | Origin → Destination | Theme | Primary Source Markets

|-------|--------------|----------------------|-------|------------------------

| Route 1 | "清凉中国"滇西北避暑旅居线 | Kunming → Lijiang/Shangri-La | Highland cooling + ethnic old towns | European/US summer travellers

| Route 2 | "食在岭南"珠三角入境消费线 | Guangzhou/Shenzhen → Pearl River Delta | Cantonese cuisine + urban culture | Southeast Asian/Western consumers

| Route 3 | "山水国际"湘西张家界世界遗产线 | Changsha/Zhangjiajie → Wulingyuan/Fenghuang | World-class peaks + ethnic culture | European landscape travellers

| Route 4 | "烟雨水乡"苏杭园林水乡线 | Hangzhou/Shanghai → Suzhou-Hangzhou | Jiangnan gardens + water-town living | European/US business-leisure travellers

The four routes cover CTP's four provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Hunan and Yunnan). Each follows the product logic of "OTA order distribution → high-quality ground delivery", converting the inbound demand surge verified by platforms such as HopeGoo into bookable, deliverable and repeatable flagship products. The CTP Research Department can further customise day-by-day itineraries and quotation templates on this basis.

7.1 Risk Alerts

HopeGoo's +157% orders is an impressive scorecard, but the CTP Research Department reminds the industry to view the following risks rationally:

1. Base effect and sustainability of high growth: The 157% growth is built on a relatively small base; as the base rises, a natural deceleration in growth is normal. The industry should focus on quality metrics beyond "order growth" — ticket price, length of stay and repeat-purchase rate;

1. Drag from the domestic slowdown: The dual slowdown in H1 domestic trips (+5.4%) and spending (+2.0%), compounded by rising fuel surcharges and extreme weather, may continue to suppress OTAs' overall performance, and whether inbound tourism can continue to hedge is uncertain; Source: CCTV / Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2026-08-07

1. Traffic plateau and acquisition costs: Average MPU -3.0% reflects the plateaued traffic dividend; OTA competition for the inbound increment may push up acquisition and subsidy costs, compressing profit margins;

1. International environment uncertainty: Geopolitics, visa policies and the pace of international route recovery may all affect the stability of inbound demand;

1. Supply-side integration risk: The hotel-management second curve relies on M&A integration (such as Wanda Hotels' closing in October 2025); integration outcomes, brand synergy and upscale hotel operation capability still need time to be proven.

7.2 Outlook: H2 2026 to 2027

Based on this edition's earnings data and industry trends, the CTP Research Department offers the following outlook for the inbound segment:

• OTAs will continue to intensify their inbound focus: With HopeGoo's +157% orders becoming an industry benchmark case, more OTAs will elevate inbound tourism to a strategic-level business, and investment in international platforms, AI tools and overseas marketing will continue to grow;
• The "demand-supply-service" three-end loop will become the main axis of competition: Capabilities across the demand end (international order distribution), the supply end (hotel management and other accommodation receiving) and the service end (AI + multilingual) are all indispensable; platforms will upgrade from "traffic competition" to "full-chain competition";
• Ground receivers will enjoy structural dividends: The OTA order-side explosion means overseas travellers are landing at scale; travel agencies, ground operators, guides and hotels with high-quality delivery capability will gain more order shares, and value distribution in the inbound value chain will further tilt towards the "service delivery end";
• AI will reshape the inbound service cost curve: The scaled application of DeepTrip, AI translation screens and AI guided tours will significantly lower the marginal cost of serving inbound travellers, allowing small-language and long-tail destinations to receive international travellers at low cost;
• CTP's four provinces will become core receiving zones for order landing: The structural advantages of Yunnan (summer living), Guangdong (port consumption), Hunan (world-class landscapes) and Jiangsu-Zhejiang (water-town consumption) will form strong synergy with OTAs' order distribution.

Section 8. FAQ: The Ten Questions Inbound-Tourism Practitioners Ask Most

Q1: Is the HopeGoo inbound order +157% figure credible?

A: Yes. The figure comes from Tongcheng Travel's official earnings report released on 24 August 2026 and is cross-cited by multiple independent media outlets including Securities Daily, Beijing Business Today, The Paper, Southern Metropolis Daily and Guandian/Sina Finance, with consistent wording — a hard figure verified by multiple sources. The official attribution is "China's continued expansion of the visa-free 'circle of friends' and optimisation of inbound-facilitation measures".

Q2: Why is this described as "an OTA platform verifying the inbound-tourism demand surge"?

A: Because this is the first time in the CTP inbound-tourism series that a leading OTA has provided hard order-side data in its official earnings. Blog 57 (240-hour transit visa-free policy), Blog 59 (port verification in the first weekend after the visa-free rollout) and Blog 60 (Shanghai inbound city tourism joint marketing) verified the policy side and the consumption side respectively; Blog 61 uses platform order data to complete the "platform demand side" link, closing the evidence chain.

Q3: Which source markets drove the +157% order growth?

A: The earnings report does not disclose a country-by-country breakdown, but combined with public data, European travellers are a major growth pole — HopeGoo data shows European inbound summer visitors stayed an average of 3+ days in hotels and more than half of European visitors in Lijiang stayed 4+ days; inbound flight passenger flows to Chengdu, Urumqi, Xi'an, Guiyang and Harbin all grew. For the specific country structure, please refer to the platform's official disclosures. Source: Guancha, 2026-08-25

Q4: What does this figure mean for travel agencies / ground operators?

A: It means overseas travellers are being converted on a large scale through OTA platforms into "domestic demand in China". After the order-side explosion, delivery inevitably falls on ground receivers — travel agencies, ground operators, guides, hotels and scenic areas. OTAs distribute orders and ground operators deliver services; ground operators with high-quality delivery capability will enjoy structural dividends.

Q5: What does Tongcheng's hotel-management business have to do with inbound tourism?

A: Hotel management is the supply-side receiving layer of inbound tourism. Elong Hotel Technology and Wanda Hotels & Resorts have 3,500+ operating hotels and 2,000+ under preparation; Wanda Hotel Management brought in 204 operating and 376 to-be-opened upscale hotels — when HopeGoo brings overseas travellers in on the demand side, the hotel network ensures "there is a place to stay, and it is comfortable", forming a "demand-supply" loop.

Q6: Are AI tools (DeepTrip, translation screens) really useful for inbound tourism?

A: Yes, and they are being deployed at scale. DeepTrip supports 17 languages with 10M+ global cumulative visits; the AI face-to-face translation screen responds in 0.5 seconds and supports 150+ languages and 27 dialects; the AI guided tour has been deployed at Yalong Bay, Prince Gong's Mansion, Elephant Trunk Hill and Wuhou Shrine. AI is systematically lowering the marginal cost of serving inbound travellers.

Q7: Is OTA AI a threat or an opportunity for ground service providers?

A: More opportunity than threat. OTA AI tools solve "standardised services" (planning, translation, commentary), while "personalised experiences" (on-the-ground guides, cultural depth, emergency services) still require ground service providers. AI lowers the industry's overall receiving cost and amplifies the service-receiving capacity of inbound orders — ground providers should proactively adopt AI tools as efficiency levers.

Q8: Will the domestic slowdown affect inbound tourism?

A: The two are relatively independent. The dual slowdown in H1 domestic trips (+5.4%) and spending (+2.0%) reflects the maturity of the domestic stock market; inbound tourism is an "external demand" increment driven by visa-free policies, international routes and overseas travellers, following a different logic from the domestic market. HopeGoo's +157% orders were achieved precisely against the backdrop of the domestic slowdown.

Q9: What is the relationship between CTP's flagship routes and OTA platforms?

A: CTP flagship routes are "ground-delivery solutions after OTA order distribution". OTAs distribute overseas orders to destinations, while CTP routes provide "origin-destination-theme" product design, day-by-day itineraries, quotation templates and ground-service SOPs, helping travel agencies and ground operators convert platform orders into deliverable products.

Q10: As an inbound-tourism practitioner, what should I do now?

A: The CTP Research Department recommends three steps: ① Connect with platforms — establish order-distribution cooperation with international platforms such as HopeGoo and enter the OTAs' inbound supply pool; ② Prepare supply — lock in accommodation, transport, commentary and other ground-receiving resources to match the accommodation and experience needs of "deep-stay" travellers; ③ Leverage AI — introduce AI translation and AI guided tour tools to lower service costs while strengthening personalised on-the-ground services. For route design and resource connectivity, please contact CTP.

Section 9. CTA · Contact CTP

ChinaTravelPlus (CTP) has long cultivated inbound tourism in Yunnan, Guangdong, Jiangsu-Zhejiang and Hunan, providing global inbound operators, travel agencies and guides with a one-stop "policy + channel + product + equipment" service. Around the demand-side explosion opportunity brought by "Tongcheng HopeGoo inbound orders +157%", CTP can provide:

• Day-by-day itineraries and quotation templates for the CTP flagship routes (Yunnan "Cool China" summer-living route / Guangdong "Gourmet Lingnan" inbound consumption route / Hunan "World-Class Landscapes" Zhangjiajie route / Jiangsu-Zhejiang "Misty Water Towns" route);
• Channel connection and supply-pool admission plans for inbound order distribution on OTA platforms such as HopeGoo;
• Inventory of ground-receiving resources (hotels, transport, commentary) under the "inbound demand surge" scenario;
• Landing assessments of digital tools (AI translation screens, AI guided tours, DeepTrip) in ground-receiving scenarios;
• Policy tracking on visa-free and inbound-facilitation measures, data collaboration and joint content creation.

📩 Sam · Sam@ChinaTravelPlus.com · WhatsApp: +86 150 9633 5677

📩 Luppy · Luppy@ChinaTravelPlus.com

🌐 Official Website: https://chinatravelplus.com

Reply "HopeGoo-61-EN" to receive the bilingual PDF version of this blog + day-by-day itineraries of the CTP flagship routes + the OTA inbound-order receiving checklist. We look forward to joining hands with you to convert the inbound demand surge verified by OTA platforms into growth for CTP's four-province ground receiving and the quality of China's inbound tourism experience.

Appendix A: Core Data Quick Reference

| Item | Key Points

|------|-----------

| Reporting entity | Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited (00780.HK)

| Report type | Q2 and H1 2026 results

| Release date | 24 August 2026

| H1 revenue | RMB9.99 billion, +10.5% YoY

| Adjusted net profit | RMB1.79 billion, +14.6% YoY

| Three business lines | Transport RMB3.96B (+2.1%) / Accommodation RMB2.85B (+11.1%) / Other RMB1.99B (+46.3%)

| HopeGoo paying consumers | Q2 +102% YoY

| HopeGoo inbound orders | Q2 +157% YoY

| Annual paying users | 254 million

| Cumulative service trips | 2.04 billion

| Average monthly paying users | 45.1 million (-3.0%)

| Operating hotels | Elong + Wanda 3,500+

| Hotels under preparation | 2,000+

| Wanda upscale hotels | 204 operating + 376 to-be-opened

| DeepTrip visits | 10M+ global cumulative

| AI translation screen | 0.5s response, 150+ languages, 27 dialects

| AI guided tour deployment | Yalong Bay / Prince Gong's / Guilin / Chengdu

| Government vouchers | Approx. RMB113 million cumulative

| Guangzhou redemption rate | "Ticket Link" close to 100%

| Suzhou vouchers | RMB30 million

| Policy background | 240-hour transit visa-free expansion (policy-name linkage, no country list)

| Report attribution | Visa-free expansion + inbound-facilitation measures

| Outbound comparison | Vacation revenue -3.8% YoY (soft outbound group tours)

| Hedging with inbound | Inbound orders +157% hedge soft outbound

| Industry context | Ctrip RMB15B over 5 years for inbound marketing (one sentence)

Appendix B: Glossary

• HopeGoo: Tongcheng Travel's international travel platform serving overseas users' travel booking to China and cross-border; this edition's core figures (paying consumers +102%, inbound orders +157%) come from this platform;
• OTA: Online Travel Agency, a platform providing bookings for flights, hotels, tickets and other travel products over the internet;
• Visa-free "circle of friends" expansion: the colloquial description of China's continued expansion of unilateral and transit visa-free policy scope (cited here as policy background, without listing countries);
• 240-hour transit visa-free: a policy under which eligible foreigners holding ordinary passports and connecting tickets can stay visa-free for up to 240 hours (10 days) in specified areas while transiting China to a third country/region (cited here only as a policy-name link);
• ARPU: Average Revenue Per User, reflecting the value contribution of a single user;
• Adjusted net profit / EBITDA: profitability metrics excluding one-off and non-operating items, used to measure core-business profitability;
• Elong Hotel Technology: the hotel-management technology platform incubated by Tongcheng Travel, covering a brand matrix from upscale to light-midscale segments;
• Wanda Hotels & Resorts: the hotel-management company integrated into the Tongcheng system in October 2025, with 204 operating and 376 to-be-opened upscale hotels;
• DeepTrip: Tongcheng Travel's AI smart travel-planning assistant supporting 17 languages, completing a one-stop loop from itinerary planning to booking;
• AI face-to-face translation screen: a cross-language communication device launched by Tongcheng Travel, with 0.5-second response and support for 150+ languages and 27 Chinese dialects;
• AI guided tour: a scenic-area smart tour service built on "one phone, one scan, full-journey AI companionship";
• Inbound demand side: the actual consumption demand of overseas travellers for travel products and services to China, corresponding to the "supply side (accommodation, ground receiving)" and the "service side (AI, language services)";
• Ground receiver: offline service entities such as travel agencies, ground operators, guides, hotels and scenic areas that deliver the fulfilment of OTA inbound orders, the direct beneficiaries of the "platform order dividend";
• Ticket Link: a culture-tourism voucher campaign co-organised by Guangzhou and Tongcheng Travel, in which travellers unlock discounts on hotels, scenic areas and bay-area lantern festivals with travel tickets, with a redemption rate close to 100%.

Appendix C: CTP Four-Province Receiving Map Quick Reference

| Front | Core Entry | Primary Source Markets | Flagship Route | This Edition's Selling Points

|-------|-----------|------------------------|-----------------|-------------------------------

| Yunnan | Kunming Changshui Airport | European/US summer-living travellers | Route 1 | 4+ days stays over half in Lijiang + summer living

| Guangdong | Guangzhou Baiyun / Shenzhen Bao'an | Southeast Asian/Western consumers | Route 2 | Gateway hub + voucher redemption close to 100%

| Hunan | Changsha Huanghua / Zhangjiajie Hehua | European landscape travellers | Route 3 | World-class peaks + multilingual service system

| Jiangsu-Zhejiang | Hangzhou Xiaoshan / Shanghai Pudong-Hongqiao | European/US business-leisure travellers | Route 4 | International hotel room nights at new high + water-town consumption

> Appendix note: the quick-reference tables and glossary above are meant to help practitioners get started quickly; financial data is subject to Tongcheng Travel's official results announcement, and policy execution details are subject to official releases by the National Immigration Administration and other authorities.

Section 11. URL Matrix (25 Official/Authoritative Sources)

1. Securities Daily "Tongcheng Travel H1 revenue RMB9.99 billion" (2026-08-25): http://m.epaper.zqrb.cn/html/2026-08/25/content_1267698.htm

1. Securities Daily Toutiao "Tongcheng Travel H1 revenue RMB9.99 billion" (2026-08-25): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7677649306744078900/

1. Beijing Business Today "Tongcheng Travel H1 2026 revenue RMB9.99 billion" (2026-08-24): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7677539476800881202/

1. TravelDaily "Online coupon issuance + offline linkage: Tongcheng Travel supports 2026 China Tourism Day voucher campaigns" (2026-05-19): https://m.traveldaily.cn:8443/article/189976

1. The Paper "Tongcheng Travel: Q2 adjusted net profit approx. RMB851 million, +9.8% YoY" (2026-08-24): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7677556542736024100/

1. Southern Metropolis Daily "Fuel surcharge rise curbs long-haul travel; Tongcheng Travel transport revenue falls for first time in three years" (2026-08-24): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7677551605759214123/

1. Guandian / Sina Finance "Interim Report Watch: H1 revenue grows to RMB10 billion; Tongcheng Travel builds a second curve with hotel management and inbound tourism" (2026-08-25): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7677639616089866786/

1. Sina Finance (Guandian full text) "Interim Report Watch" (2026-08-25): https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/estate/integration/2026-08-25/doc-inipmxcn2715613.shtml

1. Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited Results Announcement (English PDF, 2026-08-24): https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2026/0824/2026082400456.pdf

1. Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited Results Announcement (Chinese PDF, 2026-08-24): https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2026/0824/2026082400457_c.pdf

1. Sina Finance · Consumer Finance "Tongcheng Travel revenue surpasses RMB10 billion: is Ma Heping's 'second curve' steady?" (2026-08-25): https://t.cj.sina.cn/articles/view/9175017819/222dfa95b00101f72c

1. Eastmoney Fortune "Tongcheng Travel (00780.HK) H1 2026 revenue approx. RMB9.99 billion; actively embracing AI to improve operational efficiency" (2026-08-25): https://caifuhao.eastmoney.com/news/20260825164944395986990

1. 36Kr "Tongcheng Travel: H1 revenue RMB9.99 billion, +10.5% YoY" (2026-08-24): https://36kr.com/newsflashes/3953288052849798

1. Guancha (Observer) "Nowhere to escape the European heat, China's small cities 'catch the world'" (2026-08-25): https://cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/1887344341/707e96d502001uhdy

1. China News Service Hainan "Tongcheng Travel debuts AI products at the expo, launches translation screens to support inbound tourism" (2026-04-15): http://www.hi.chinanews.com.cn/hnnew/2026-04-15/739246.html

1. Hong Net "New AI travel gadget! Tongcheng Travel launches 'AI face-to-face translation screen' and other innovations" (2026-04-14): http://m.toutiao.com/group/7628514806328312371/

1. Guangzhou Daily New Flower City "New WeChat AI ecosystem layout: Ctrip and Tongcheng to integrate first" (2026-06-10): https://huacheng.gz-cmc.com/pages/2026/06/09/ee16062e7ef8434a8ffb47fc9b161cec.html

1. CCTV / Ministry of Culture and Tourism "H1 domestic residents made 3.463 billion trips, spending RMB3.21 trillion" (2026-08-07): https://news.cctv.cn/2026/08/07/ARTITyGEBSIhWAuHsMhKgq9S260807.shtml

1. Guangming Daily "Ctrip announces RMB15 billion investment over 5 years to promote inbound tourism" (2026-06-01): http://travel.gmw.cn/2026-06/01/content_38805137.htm

1. Sina Finance · Yicai "Liang Jianzhang: to invest RMB15 billion in inbound tourism promotion over the next 5 years, introducing 200 million inbound visitors" (2026-06-01): https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-06-01/doc-inhzwisr8538284.shtml

1. Sina Finance / Caiwen "Didi Chuxing: Tongcheng Travel tender offer closed, 88.74% shares accepted" (2026-08-21): https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-08-21/doc-inipavkp1577012.shtml

1. Shanghai Securities News · China Securities Network "Major integration! Intraday surge of over 90%" (2026-06-30): http://www.cnstock.com/commonDetail/736274

1. Guangzhou Municipal Government Portal "Ticket Link · New Year in Guangzhou: 2026 Cantonese New Year festive season benefits online" (2026-02-25): https://www.gz.gov.cn/zfjg/gzswhgdlyj/mlgz/gzly/content/mpost_10696401.html

1. CPPCC News "Steady rise: Elong Hotel Technology ranks 7th in the 2026 China Hotel Group Scale List" (2026-04-23): http://www.rmzxw.com.cn/c/2026-04-23/3905794.shtml

1. ChinaTravelPlus Official Website: https://chinatravelplus.com

SEO Description (150-160 chars): Tongcheng Travel H1 2026: revenue RMB9.99B +10.5%; HopeGoo inbound orders +157% and consumers +102% in Q2 - OTA earnings verify inbound demand surge; hotel mgmt +46.3%.

> Disclaimer: This blog is originally produced by the ChinaTravelPlus (CTP) Editorial Team; data sources are shown in the main text and the URL Matrix. This blog is the 61st issue of the CTP inbound tourism research series. Financial and business data are subject to Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited's official results announcement and HKEX disclosures; HopeGoo-related data reflect the disclosure basis of Tongcheng Travel's official earnings; industry context (including OTA inbound strategies) is subject to each company's official releases. The CTP Research Department has fulfilled reasonable prudent obligations but makes no express or implied guarantee of the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the data; if there is any data correction or supplement, please contact us via the emails at the end of this blog.

Conclusion: When OTA Earnings Become the "Money Verifier" of Inbound Demand

From Blog 57's visa-free policy release, to Blog 59's port passenger-flow verification in the first weekend after the visa-free rollout, to Blog 60's Shanghai inbound city tourism joint marketing, the CTP inbound-tourism series has documented an evidence chain from the "policy side" to the "consumption side". In this edition, Blog 61, Tongcheng Travel HopeGoo's inbound orders +157% and paying consumers +102% add the hardest link to this evidence chain — the platform demand side.

OTA earnings data are essentially a "demand-side money verifier": whether policies were relaxed, whether travellers came, whether they were willing to spend, how many days they stayed, how many flights they took — all of this ultimately settles into the OTA's reports in the form of orders. When a leading platform like Tongcheng records triple-digit order growth, the inbound-demand surge is no longer a "trend judgement" but a "balance-sheet fact".

For CTP, the takeaway from this report is clear and practical: the policy dividend has already been converted into an order dividend, and OTAs are becoming the largest distribution hub for inbound demand; after orders land, what truly determines the traveller experience is the inn in Yunnan, the table in Guangdong, the peaks in Hunan and the water towns in Jiangsu-Zhejiang — the delivery capability of ground receivers in CTP's four provinces.

Looking back at the entire story chain: Blog 57 recorded the policy side "opening the door" (240-hour transit visa-free expansion), Blog 59 recorded the port side "people arriving" (passenger-flow verification in the first weekend after the visa-free rollout), Blog 60 recorded the consumption side "willing to spend" (Shanghai inbound city tourism joint marketing), and this edition, Blog 61, records the platform side "placing orders" (HopeGoo +157%) — policy side → port and consumption side → platform demand side: four blog posts link together to complete the full evidence chain of the inbound-demand explosion. This is both the value of the CTP Research Department's continuous tracking and an industry fact that all inbound-tourism practitioners can jointly verify.

Looking ahead to H2 2026, the CTP Research Department recommends that practitioners seize three certainties: first, the certainty of orders — triple-digit growth at OTAs shows overseas travellers are genuinely flooding in, so stop waiting on the sidelines; second, the certainty of receiving — lock in supply resources such as hotels, transport, commentary and on-the-ground experiences in advance, so that platform orders can be received well and delivered well; third, the certainty of experience — use AI tools to lower costs and cultural depth to add value, so that every traveller who comes to China through an OTA platform is willing to return and to recommend. Let us convert the inbound demand surge verified by OTA platforms into actual growth in the quality of the China Travel experience and inbound tourism.

Frequently Asked Questions