Tuniu Corporation (TOUR) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Hello, and thank you for standing by for Tuniu's 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] 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.

Thank you, and welcome to our 2026 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, operational highlights and financial performance for the second quarter of 2026. 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.

Thank you, Mary. Good day, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Supported by favorable policies such as the introduction of spring breaks, the domestic travel market maintained steady growth in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the overall travel market faced some uncertainties with certain outbound destinations experiencing headwinds. Despite these challenges, we maintained revenue growth in the second quarter and achieved non-GAAP profitability for the sixth consecutive quarter. During the quarter, we continued to execute our diversified product and sales channel strategy. Guided by customer needs, we further enriched our product offerings across categories, destinations and price tiers. For our sales channels, we continued to work with a broad range of partners to better reach different customer segments. Let me walk you through some of our key initiatives in more detail. On the product side, as customers increasingly seek more personalized [ travel ] and flexible travel options, we have continued to expand and refine our product portfolio. First, we further expanded our product offerings to include more small group tours, private tours, customized tours, self-driving tours and other travel-related products. For growth tours have been well received by younger travelers for their flexibility and strong value proposition, while private tours have gained popularity among family travelers for their more personalized and private travel experience. Better serve the needs of self-guided travelers, we also expanded our hotel-centric self-guided tour products and broadened our portfolio of other travel-related products, including hotels, car rentals and the destination experiences. Second, in addition to enhancing our Niu tour products for the mass market and our value-oriented Niu Select series, we introduced a number of premium private tour products during the quarter to meet demand from customers seeking higher quality travel experiences. These products feature premium accommodations, dedicated car services and other upgraded travel experiences. For example, our premium private tour package to Singapore for the summer season launched in late June has been well received by family travelers with sales volume exceeded RMB 10 million to date. We also continue to expand our product offerings for different customer segments. For family-oriented customers, we launched a range of travel products during the spring break season centered on East China. For senior travelers, we introduced a longer duration organized tours of more than 15 days as well as off-peak travel products scheduled outside major holiday period. By better aligning our products with the preferences of different customer segments. This offerings have delivered higher conversion and redemption rates. On the sales side, we adopted more targeted marketing initiatives. We launched a series of online seminars, inviting customers interested in specific products or destinations to learn more through detailed presentations and interactive activities, helping deepen customer engagement and interest. Also introduced dedicated live streaming shows focused on specific products and destinations, providing viewers with more in-depth and specialized content. These targeted live streaming shows have generally delivered higher redemption rates. In addition to more targeted product offerings and marketing initiatives, we continued to expand our partnerships across sales channels. In live streaming, we further extended our presence to multiple major platforms while also deepening cooperation with MCN agencies. Leveraging our comprehensive portfolio of high-quality leisure travel products and well-established fulfillment capabilities, together with the extensive viewer reach of our MCN partners, we are able to increase sales scale and expand our customer base. In the second quarter, both payment and verification volume generated through our live streaming channels continued to record double-digit year-over-year growth. In the second quarter, transaction volume from our off-line stores have also continued to record double-digit year-over-year growth. As of today, we operate approximately 500 offline stores. Our offline store network has contributed to sales growth and expanded the reach of our service network. While we continue to provide stores with tailored products that help them better serve and attract local customers. During the second quarter, demand for customized travel solutions from corporate clients increased. Leveraging our industry experience and high-quality products and services, we worked with a number of well-known enterprise to plan and deliver corporate travel tours, including team building activities and incentive travel. From a technology perspective, we have integrated AI into a broader range of workflows such as building knowledge bases, creating promotional materials and assisting with order processing. AI tools have become valuable assistants to many employees, helping them work more efficiently while reducing operating costs. On the customer side, we upgraded our travel AI agent, AI assistant Xiao Niu with integrated booking and order processing capabilities. Customers can now complete the entire booking process for stand-alone travel products, including flights, hotels and [ attraction ] tickets through AI from initial inquiry to final booking. In addition, Xiao Niu can search, plan and compare itineraries based on different travel scenarios such as business trips or vacations as well as customers' individual preferences. Delivering a more personalized travel planning experience. As we enter the summer travel season, we are well positioned to support the increased demand during the peak travel period. While there may still be some uncertainties in the second half of the year, we are confident in the growth of travel demand and the resiliency of both the travel industry and our business. We remain committed to providing customers with high-quality products and services. I'll now turn the call over to Anqiang, our Financial Controller, for the financial highlights.

Thank you, Donald. Hello, everyone. Now I will walk you through our second quarter of 2026 financial results in greater detail. Please note that all monetary amounts are in RMB, unless otherwise stated. You can find the U.S. dollar equivalent of the numbers in our earnings release. For the second quarter of 2026, net revenues were CNY 138.9 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 3% from the corresponding period in 2025. Revenues from packaged tours were up 7% year-over-year to CNY 121.1 million and accounted for 87% of our total net revenues for the quarter. The increase was primarily due to the growth of organized tours. Other revenues were down 17% year-over-year to CNY 17.8 million and accounted for 13% of our total net revenues. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in the fees for advertising services provided to tourism boards and bureaus. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2026 were CNY 76.4 million, down 11% year-over-year. Operating expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were CNY 82.5 million, up 5% year-over-year. Research and product development expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were CNY 13.8 million, down 16% 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 second quarter of 2026 were CNY 54.7 million, up 22% year-over-year. The increase was primarily due to the increase in promotion expenses. General and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were CNY 14.1 million, down 20% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in general and administrative personnel-related expenses. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of Tuniu Corporation was CNY 0.7 million in the second quarter of 2026. 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 2.2 million in the second quarter of 2026. As of June 30, 2026, the company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term deposits of CNY 1 billion. Cash flow generated from operations for the second quarter of 2026 was CNY 46.9 million. Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2026 were CNY 1.4 million. For the third quarter of 2026, the company expects to generate CNY 202.1 million to CNY 212.2 million of net revenues, which represents a 0% to 5% increase year-over-year. Please note that this forecast reflects Tuniu's current and 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 Instructions] Our first question comes from [ Sarah Zhao ] a Private Investor.

Two questions here. First, could you please share the reasons for the decrease in net profit in the second quarter? Second, could you provide more details about travel bookings in the summer and also the outlook for the profitability of the quarter?

Thank you for the questions. In the second quarter, the domestic travel market continued to grow steadily, whereas the outbound travel market met some headwinds at certain destinations. The headwinds directly impacted leisure travel to certain destinations. For example, the Middle East and Africa recorded over 20% year-over-year decrease of transaction volume during the quarter. As a result, outbound tours accounted for about 30% of our total GMV for the second quarter compared to over 1/3 in the same period last year. Moreover, the promotional activities from certain destinations were suspended. In the second quarter, our other revenues decreased about 70% year-over-year, mainly due to reduction in fees for advertising services we provided. In the domestic market, we see more rapid growth in self-guided tour products, such as our Hotel + X products. These products are usually less profitable than organized tours. For the summer vacation, domestic travel market maintained steady growth momentum, high-quality organized tour products such as small group tours and private tours are welcomed by customers. Some of our [ MCN ] partners select only small group tour products to recommend to their viewers. Outbound market continues to face some uncertainties, which dragged down the growth of outbound travel. Destinations such as Middle East still recorded negative growth in July, but other destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Americas grew healthily during the summer. As many people took off-peak travels this year with more holidays introduced, we are seeing transaction volume become more evenly spread across the months. For example, -- since the coming Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday are very close to each other. Many people plan to take a longer vacation connecting [ two ] holidays. Therefore, we are seeing bookings in the last week of September surging. Notably, as of today, travels to long-haul outbound destinations such as Americas and Oceania during the week, we have already surpassed the same period last year. Lastly, although we don't give specific profit outlook, we will try to achieve the profitability for another quarter. Thank you.

Thank you did that answer your questions, [ Sarah ]?

Yes.

[Operator Instructions] We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I will now turn the call over to Tuniu's Director of Investor Relations, Mary, for closing remarks.

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.

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