On Friday, Tuniu (NASDAQ:TOUR) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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Summary
Tuniu Corporation reported a 13% year-over-year increase in net revenues for Q1 2026, reaching 132.6 million RMB, with package tours accounting for 83% of total revenues.
The company achieved non-GAAP profitability for the fifth consecutive quarter and emphasized its ongoing expansion of supply chain capabilities and sales channel development.
Strategic initiatives include expanding the supplier network and integrating AI technologies for enhanced customer experiences and operational efficiency.
Tuniu plans to expand its offline store network and increase live streaming contributions to total transaction volume, which already exceeded 20% in Q1.
For Q2 2026, the company expects net revenues to increase by 0% to 5% year-over-year, reflecting mixed market conditions and some headwinds from rising airfares.
Management highlighted a shift in customer demand from traditional sightseeing to cultural and experience-oriented travel, with new products catering to this trend.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Hello and thank you for standing by for Tuniu’s 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After Management’s prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. 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 (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Zhu, and welcome to our 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Donald Yu Jr., Tuniu’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer and Tuniu’s financial controller. For today’s agenda, Management will discuss business updates, operational 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.
Donald 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 markets 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 rate 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 Flights 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 new 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 new tool has been one of our core high quality organized tour products supported by a relatively loyal customer base. To meet evolving customer demand, new tool products have expanded into long haul and more complex destinations including Africa and South America. This year we continue 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 Tactical tools 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 our virtual 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 new tour products also feature experienced senior tour guide to provide in depth supplementary 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 Club offerings with hotels as the core component. To support this, we have strengthened direct sourcing our resort hotels and increase 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 travel itineraries. Customers can then select their preferred elements to customize their own 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 adjusted 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 payment and the verification volume continued to record to record double digit year over year growth.
As we continue to gain experience in live streaming and better understand customer preferences, we have introduced more targeted products products for different customers 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 private row products. These targeted initiatives improve customer acquisition efficiency and contributed to higher verification rates.
In addition, we continue to extend live streaming to definition 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 booking and verifications in the first portal. Our offline store business continues to grow with transaction volume increasing by nearly 30 year over year. Offline stores continue to play an important role in the sales of organized tour products and the promotion of two new brands.
We fully opened our systems and 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 B2B2C 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 skill, 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 a broader customer base.
In terms of technology, we will continue to explore the application of AI technologies across various business scenarios this year,
integrating automation tools into more operational processes through ongoing tool upgraded and improvement to our regular operations, AI tools can assist employees in handling more repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more complex and innovative work. On the customer side, technology tools such as itinerary recommendations, standalone product booking and dynamic packaging provide customers with a 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’ll now turn the call over to Antiang, our financial controller for the financial highlights.
Antiang (Financial Controller)
Thank you Donald. Hello everyone. Now I walk you through our first quarter of 2026 financial results in greater detail. Please note that monetary amounts are in IMB unless otherwise stated. You can find the US dollar equivalent of the numbers in our earnings release. For the first quarter of 2026, net revenues were 132.6 million, representing a year over year increase of 13% from the corresponding period in 2025. Revenues from package toward were up 11% year over year to 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 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 toys and tourism bureaus. Gross Profit for the first quarter of 2026 was 73.6 million, up 6% year over year. Operating expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were 77.3 million, down 4% year over year.
Research and product development expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were 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 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 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 Tune new Corporation was 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 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 1 billion. Capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2026 was 0.5 million. For the second quarter of 2026, the company expects to generate 134.9 million to 141.6 million of net revenues, which represents a 0% to 5% increase in year over year. Please note that this forecast reflects two new 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 the question and answer session of this conference call will start in a moment. In order to be fair to all callers who wish to ask questions, we will take one question at a time from each caller. If you have more than one question, please request to join the question queue again after your first question has been addressed. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys.
If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Kathy Liu, Private Investor. Please go ahead.
Kathy Liu (Private Investor)
Hi Management. Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions here. First, we will see in the market conditions for the second quarter look relatively mixed with the rollout of the spring break policy as a positive driver and the surging airfares at the handwind. How will these factors impact our business? And my second one is about upcoming summer vacation. Could you kindly share some color on current booking trends? That’s all. Thank you.
Donald Yu
Thank you for the questions. Firstly, we are glad to see a lot of cities implemented spring breaks this year. Many of them arranged the breaks before Qingming or Labor Day holidays, forming a longer vacation. It stimulated the growth of travels, especially year travels in the domestic market. For example, we recorded over 50% year over year growth in the number of trips from April 1st till the 6th this year. Moreover, during April 1st to the 3rd, the number of trips for family tours tripod 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 eastern China which were welcomed by the parents. We plan to expand the destination coverage and offer brick 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 tools 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 tool products maintain the same price despite the higher airfares. For domestic tools, we provide alternative travel solutions such as connecting flights, train taxes 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 short haul outbound tours. Based on our insight, destinations with cooler weather such as Guizhou and Neimang Gu will be on the hot list. Also, as we see the shift from traditional sightseeing to cultural experience is undergoing, cities such as Beijing and Datong will be popular for long haul outbound travel tours.
The bookings are on the track. For example, so far we see the booking amount for packet tours to America in July and August has already exceeded the same period last year. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Once again. If you have a question, please press Star then one. We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I will now turn the call over to TUNE News Director of Investor Relations Mary for closing remarks.
Mary (Director of Investor Relations)
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.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
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