For the fourth quarter alone last year, the online service platform saw net income almost double to 4.3 billion yuan (US$613 million), compared to the 2.2 billion yuan seen in the same period a year earlier.
However, that fourth-quarter profit marked a 78 percent plunge from the 19.9 billion yuan profits seen in the previous quarter last year, partly due to seasonality factors.
Revenue, meanwhile, stood at 15.4 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, up 21 percent year on year thanks to resilient travel demand.
For the full year, net income stood at 33.4 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion), compared to the 17.2 billion yuan seen a year earlier, while revenues jumped 17 percent year on year to 62.4 billion yuan.
The gains were boosted by resilient global travel demand, especially from inbound travellers which totalled 20 million during the year, while total bookings on the group’s global OTA platform soared 60 percent year on year, the company said.
Investments in areas such as artificial intelligence innovation also helped boosted revenues, it added.
Separately, the group said its president and director, Min Fan, one of the four company co-founders, had resigned from his roles, among a series of changes to the board of directors which took effective on Wednesday.
The online travel service provider noted that it had appointed May Wu and Iris Xiao as new independent directors, as well as Gabriel Li to serve on the compensation committee of the board of directors.
The announcements came after the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched an investigation into the group last month over its alleged abuse of market dominance.
In a statement, the group acknowledged the probe and said the investigation is still ongoing and it is fully cooperating with the SAMR on the matter.
“The company will continue to actively communicate with the SAMR on compliance with regulatory requirements. The company cannot predict the status of results of the investigation as of now, and will provide further updates when the investigation is concluded,” it said.
It added that its business operations remained normal.
Trip.com was founded in China as Ctrip in 1999 before acquiring other companies and rebranding under its current name in 2019.
Edited by Thomas McAlinden
