The message is loud and clear – Trip.com Group wants to have the leading international travel brand in Asia in three years and to be the leading international travel brand in the world by 2025.

Those ambitions were declared by chairman James Liang at its 20th anniversary celebrations and the day before, its key expansion vehicle, Trip.com, shared its strategy and plans at its first-ever English-speaking Airline Partners event in Shanghai.

There’s a lot riding on the group’s internalisation – its latest financial results for the third quarter of 2019 showed a 50% year-over-year growth rate in its international hotel business (excluding Greater China). It was also the 12th consecutive quarter of triple-digit growth for international air ticketing volume.

Overall, Trip.com Group posted a 52% year-over-year increase in income from operations to $314 million. Operating margin reached 21% for the quarter, topping the 16% mark for the same period in 2018.

Announcing the results, CEO Jane Sun: “We are encouraged by the performance of our international business.”

The Trip.com event, attended by close to 200 partners and suppliers from all over the world, was both about declaring Trip.com’s global ambitions as well as showing to its partners its desire to take a lead in distribution, branding, and customer service, as well as thought leadership.

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