Tuniu (TOUR) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Friday, June 5, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer — Dunde Yu
• Financial Controller — Anqiang Chen
• Director of Investor Relations — Mary Chen

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Revenues -- CNY 132.6 million, up 13% year over year, driven by growth in both online and self-guided tours.
• Packaged Tours Revenue -- CNY 109.7 million, rising 11% year over year, comprising 83% of total net revenues; growth attributed to increased online and self-guided tour demand.
• Other Revenues -- CNY 22.9 million, increasing 24% year over year, making up 17% of total net revenues, primarily due to growth in advertising service fees to tourism boards and bureaus.
• Gross Profit -- CNY 73.6 million with a 6% year-over-year increase.
• Operating Expenses -- CNY 77.3 million, decreasing 4% year over year.
• Research and Product Development Expenses -- CNY 13.6 million, down 7% year over year, reflecting reduced personnel-related costs.
• Sales and Marketing Expenses -- CNY 50.5 million, up 17% year over year due to higher promotion costs.
• General and Administrative Expenses -- CNY 13.5 million, down 41% year over year; prior year was impacted by property and equipment impairment.
• Net Income Attributable to Shareholders -- CNY 0.7 million reported.
• Non-GAAP Net Income Attributable to Shareholders -- CNY 2.6 million, excluding share-based compensation and acquired intangible asset amortization.
• Cash and Equivalents -- CNY 1 billion held as of March 31, 2026, inclusive of cash, restricted cash, short-term investments, and long-term deposits.
• Capital Expenditures -- CNY 0.5 million for the reported quarter.
• Offline Store Transaction Volume -- Nearly 30% year-over-year growth observed in offline store business volume.
• Live Streaming Contribution -- Live streaming accounted for over 20% of total transaction volume, with both payment and verification volumes achieving double-digit year-over-year increases.
• Q2 Revenue Guidance -- Management expects CNY 134.9 million to CNY 141.6 million in net revenues for next quarter, representing a projected year-over-year growth of 0%-5%.

SUMMARY

Management cited the extension of the Chinese New Year holiday and the rollout of spring break policies as clear drivers for travel demand, with organized packaged tours and self-guided options showing momentum. Market strategies emphasized expanding both domestic and outbound product coverage, as well as leveraging technology—including AI and dynamic packaging—to personalize offerings for both self-guided and group travelers. The live streaming channel has seen accelerating engagement, with targeted promotions for seniors and families, while offline sales networks were extended further into lower-tier cities. During spring holiday periods, Tuniu experienced both overall trip volume and family tour bookings increasing sharply, with long-haul outbound packaged tour bookings to America in July and August already surpassing last year's level for that period.

• CEO Yu said, "the number of trips for family tours tripled compared to the same period last year" during April 1–3, highlighting targeted demand for family-oriented products.
• Founder Yu described live streaming capability expansion, including cruise-based sessions, as integral to boosting customer acquisition and sales verification rates.
• Dunde Yu emphasized the company "achieved non-GAAP profitability for the fifth consecutive quarter," supporting sustained positive operating momentum.
• CEO Yu identified a shift in domestic consumer preference from traditional sightseeing to "more culture and experience-oriented travel," prompting upgrades to in-depth itineraries offered in smaller or private group formats.
• For outbound long-haul trips, CEO Yu stated that "many long-haul outbound tour products maintain the same price despite the higher airfares" due to resource integration within tour packages.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Niu Tour: Tuniu's branded high-quality organized tour product line catering to experienced and repeat travelers.
• S2B2C model: A supply chain and sales approach where Tuniu (Supplier) enables business partners (Businesses) to serve end-users (Customers) with integrated travel products and services.
• Verification volume: The count of successfully completed purchases validated through Tuniu's sales or booking channels.
• Dynamic packaging: Technology-driven customization of travel itineraries that allows customers to assemble preferred combinations of services such as hotels and flights.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, and thank you for standing by for Tuniu's 2026 First 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.

Mary Chen: Thank you, Drew, and welcome to our 2026 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 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.

Dunde Yu: Thank you, Mary. Good day, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. The travel industry maintained solid growth momentum in the first quarter of 2026, supported in part by the longest Chinese New Year holiday on record with both domestic and outbound travel market seeing stable growth. In the first quarter, our net revenues increased by 13% year-over-year. At the same time, we achieved non-GAAP profitability for the fifth consecutive quarter. This year, we will continue to strengthen both our supply chain capabilities and the sales channel development. Supported by the company's strength in products and industry insights, we aim to further enhance our travel resource base and business partnerships.

We will also continue to leverage technology tools to improve operational efficiency and deliver high-quality products and services to a broader customer base. Next, I will go through our core strategic initiatives in more detail. On the supply side, we will continue to expand our supplier network across areas such as car rentals, overseas hotels and the destination experiences with the aim of further broadening our product offering. Also, we will integrate demand for both Tuniu and our partners to further strengthen the advantages of our centralized procurement while maintaining product quality and price competitiveness. Last year, we added connecting flight solutions to our outbound travel products, expanding departure coverage and serving more travelers from lower-tier cities.

This year, we are extending our connecting flight solutions to domestic travel products, offering customers more flexible travel arrangements. For certain Niu Tour products, we provide travelers departing from different cities across China with integrated flight solutions. In the event of delays to connecting flights, we will assist customers in completing the remaining segments of their journeys at no additional cost. High-quality products continue to play an important role in attracting our customers and partners. In line with this, Niu Tour has been one of our core high-quality organized tour products, supported by a relatively loyal customer base. To meet evolving customer demand, Niu Tour products have expanded into long-haul and more complex destinations, including Africa and South America.

This year, we continued to introduce new premium outbound Niu Tour products for experienced travelers, such as North America multi-destination itinerary covering the U.S., Canada and Mexico as well as South America and Caucasus tours, which have been well received with many repeat customers. In terms of the domestic travel market, we see that customer demand is gradually shifting from traditional sightseeing towards more culture and experience-oriented travel. In response, we have upgraded our organized tour products through introducing more in-depth itineraries, focused on single destinations. These products reduce the number of stops within an itinerary, focus on core destinations and selected sightseeing attractions and provide travelers with more time for exploration and local experiences.

To further enhance the travel experience, many of these in-depth products are offered in small group and private group tour format. Certain Niu Tour products also feature experienced senior tour guides to provide in-depth commentary for travelers. We have seen that the number of self-guided travelers has continued to increase. To address the changing needs of this segment, we expanded our Hotel + X offerings with hotels at the core component. To support this, we have strengthened direct sourcing of resort hotels and increased procurement of other travel-related products to broaden our offering. In addition, supported by AI and dynamic packaging technologies, many self-guided travel products are now content-driven for potential bookings.

After customers input relevant information, the system can automatically generate destination recommendations and the travel itineraries. Customers can then select their preferred elements to customize their self-guided travel packages, which offers greater flexibility and personalization in the booking process. We have continued to expand our channel presence. Also, together with our partners, we work to better identify customer needs across different channels and have accordingly adopted our products and services to support product sales. In the first quarter, live streaming contribution to our total transaction volume further increased to over 20%. Both payments and the verification volume continued to record double-digit year-over-year growth.

As we continue to gain experience in live streaming and better understand the customer preferences, we have introduced more targeted products for different customer segments. For example, for senior travelers, we introduced European tour products with itineraries longer than 15 days. While for family-oriented customers, we promoted customized Singapore tours and the private group products. These targeted initiatives improve customer acquisition efficiency and contribute to higher verification rates. In addition, we continue to expand live streaming to destination-based scenarios. For example, we conducted onboard live stream sessions from cruise ships, providing customers with a more direct understanding of destinations and helping drive both bookings and verifications.

In the first quarter, our offline store business continued to grow with transaction volume increasing by nearly 30% year-over-year. Offline stores continued to play an important role in the sales of offline tour products and the promotion of Tuniu brands. We fully opened our systems and the product offerings to offline stores, enabling them to expand our reach into lower-tier markets and provide customers in lower-tier cities with access to a broader range of travel products, particularly outbound travel products. This year, we plan to continue expanding our offline store network. In addition, we are further broadening our channel partnerships, backed by our solid supply chain, quality products and advanced technology tools.

Our S2B2C model enables us to efficiently provide business partners with a broad range of products and services to meet the needs of their end customers. This collaborative approach creates value for both sides. Tuniu is able to connect the supply and demand more efficiently, lower customer acquisition costs and expand sales scale, while partners can offer high-quality travel products and services to better sell and retain their customers. Going forward, we will continue to expand our partner network and jointly serve a broader customer base. In terms of technology, we will continue to explore the application of AI technologies across various business scenarios this year, further integrating automation tools into more operational processes.

Through ongoing tool upgrades and improvements to our regular operations, AI tools can assist employees in handling more repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more contacts and innovative work. On the customer side, technology tools such as itinerary recommendations, stand-alone product booking and dynamic packaging provide customers with more intelligent, convenient and efficient booking experience. In particular, self-guided travelers can leverage AI-assisted tools to customize travel products based on their own preferences and needs. This year, the travel market has seen a growing number of peak travel periods. Following the spring break and the recent holidays in the second quarter, the summer travel season is approaching. This presents both opportunities and challenges.

We will continue to strengthen the supply, sales and service capabilities of our seasonal travel products and work closely with sales channel partners to provide more customers with simple, convenient and high-quality travel experiences. I will now turn the call over to Anqiang, our financial controller, for the financial highlights.

Anqiang Chen: Thank you, Donald. Hello, everyone. Now I'll walk you through our first 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 first quarter of 2026, net revenues were CNY 132.6 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 13% from the corresponding period in 2025. Revenues from packaged tours were 11% up year-over-year to CNY 109.7 million and accounted for 83% of our total net revenues for the quarter. The increase was primarily due to the growth of online tours and self-guided tours.

Other revenues were up 24% year-over-year to CNY 22.9 million and accounted for 17% of our total net revenues. The increase was primarily due to the increase in the fees for advertising services provided to tourism boards and bureaus. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2026 was CNY 73.6 million, up 6% year-over-year. Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were CNY 77.3 million, down 4% year-over-year. Research and product development expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were CNY 13.6 million, down 7% 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 2026 were CNY 50.5 million, up 17% year-over-year.

The increase was primarily due to the increase in promotion expenses. General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were CNY 13.5 million, down 41% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the impairment of property and equipment, net, recorded in the first quarter of 2025. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of Tuniu Corporation was CNY 0.7 million in the first 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 2.6 million in the first quarter of 2026.

As of March 31, 2026, the company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term deposits of CNY 1 billion. Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2026 were CNY 0.5 million. For the second quarter of 2026, the company expects to generate CNY 134.9 million to CNY 141.6 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: [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Kathy Liu, a private investor.

Unknown Attendee: 2 questions here. First, we were seeing market conditions for the second quarter look relatively mixed. With the rollout of spring break policy as a positive driver and the surging airfares as a headwind, how will these factors impact our business? And my second one is about the upcoming summer vacation. Could you kindly share some color also on the booking trends? That's all.

Dunde Yu: Thank you for the questions. Firstly, we are glad to see a lot of cities implemented spring break this year. Many of them arranged the break before timing of Labor Day holidays, forming a longer vacation. It stimulated the growth of travel, especially leisure travel in the domestic market. For example, we recorded over 50% year-over-year growth in the number of trips from April 1 till 6 this year. Moreover, during April 1 to the 3, the number of trips for family tours tripled compared to the same period last year. Products featuring natural experiences, theme parks and study tours were most favored by families with children.

We've launched several spring break-oriented products in East China, which were welcomed by the parents. We plan to expand the destination coverage and autumn break products in the second half of the year. For the increase of airfare prices, the impact is limited on long-haul packaged tours. Such packaged tours often contain many travel resources other than airfare. So the risk can be mitigated by integrating other resources in the package. Through our coordinating with the suppliers, many long-haul outbound tour products maintain the same price despite the higher airfares. For domestic tours, we provide alternative travel solutions such as connecting flights, train tickets and car rental.

But considering headwinds at certain outbound destinations as well as airfare price impact on short-haul travels and air ticketing alone, we expect the revenues to increase up to 5% year-over-year in the second quarter. For your second question about the summer vacation, it's still too early to tell. We have limited visibility towards the booking data due to short booking window, especially for domestic tours and the short-haul outbound tours. Based on our insight, destinations with cooler weather, such as [ Guizhou ] and Neimeng will be on the hot list. Also, as we see the shift from traditional sightseeing to culture experience is undergoing, cities such as Beijing and [indiscernible] will be popular.

For long-haul outbound tours, the bookings are on track. For example, so far, we see the booking amount for packaged tours to America in July and August has already exceeded the same period last year. Thank you.

Operator: [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.

Mary Chen: Once again, thank you for joining us today. Please do not 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: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.