Trip.com Group's latest ESG report: 16 million choose sustainable travel options, low-carbon hotel bookings surge

SINGAPORE, Dec. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Trip.com Group released its annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report for the fourth consecutive year, highlighting its sustainability practices across the business.

Key findings in the report reveal the preference for low-carbon products across Trip.com Group. In the past year, more than 16 million Trip.com Group customers opted for low-carbon travel options.

Trip.com Group has also shown its commitment to environmental protection by launching its low-carbon hotel standard initiative in 2023, an industry framework that works with hotel partners to improve accommodation sustainability and environmental protection. The initiative has been showing promising results, with over 1,500 partners being shortlisted as low-carbon hotels.

Besides environmentally-friendly measures, Trip.com Group also adopts a holistic approach to promoting sustainable development of the travel industry. "The ESG strategies of Trip.com Group are developed on the premise of ensuring the quality of customer service, aiming at promoting the sustainable development of our industry via environmentally-friendly, family-friendly, community-friendly and stakeholder-friendly guidelines," said James Liang, Co-founder and Chairman of Trip.com Group.

To support and drive growth in its communities, Trip.com Group continues to invest in its rural revitalisation strategy, which aims at supporting tourism through building high-end accommodation and training tourism professionals to stimulate economic growth and development. Its Trip.com Group Country Retreats have increased from 8 to 27, rapidly growing by 237%.

After the completion of each Country Retreat, around 40 new B&Bs have opened in the surrounding area, driving the total revenue of B&Bs to increase by 122% year-on-year. The annual per-capita income of the locals associated with Country Retreats has grown by more than RMB 40,000. More local residents are also able to start businesses and find employment closer to home, leading to a higher quality of life.

Trip.com Group is also committed to family-friendly initiatives, prioritising maintaining a gender-inclusive and diverse workplace. Today, female employees represent more than 60% of all staff, far exceeding the average of 43% established by the latest Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI). Over 33% of management staff are female, higher than the average of 20% for Internet companies.

On the front of work-life balance, Trip.com Group is also the first company in the Chinese mainland to launch a "Hybrid Work Initiative". Two-thirds of its employees have so far enjoyed the benefit of working from home.

Trip.com Group is also working with nine travel industry partners to provide more job opportunities for women across the travel industry. The joint 'Travel Mulan' initiative plans to increase female engagement, benefit families, and support the travel industry's recovery.

In addition, transparency in corporate governance is a key driver in the successful implementation of Trip.com Group's ESG strategy. The proportion of independent directors in Trip.com Group has increased from 55.5% to 62.5%. At the same time, the ESG Committee, led by Jane Sun, the CEO of Trip.com Group, has established a hierarchy of specialists: decision-making, management and execution to promote Trip.com Group's ESG sustainable development strategy.

Embracing the future, Trip.com Group will solidify its commitment to sustainability and continue to create value for its customers, industry partners, employees, and society.

"The past year has been a critical year for Trip.com Group in advancing its sustainable development goals. Guided by our principles, we've worked with multiple partners across the travel industry to attain these achievements, aligning with the shared vision of the travel industry."

"Going forward, we will explore strategic approaches to align with our goals, enhancing commercial and social value while supporting our partners and travellers to build a more sustainable future for all," said Sun.

About Trip.com Group

Trip.com Group is a leading global travel service provider comprising of Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner, and Qunar. Across its platforms, Trip.com Group helps travellers around the world make informed and cost-effective bookings for travel products and services and enables partners to connect their offerings with users through the aggregation of comprehensive travel-related content and resources, and an advanced transaction platform consisting of apps, websites and 24/7 customer service centres. Founded in 1999 and listed on NASDAQ in 2003 and HKEX in 2021, Trip.com Group has become one of the best-known travel groups in the world, with the mission "to pursue the perfect trip for a better world". Find out more about Trip.com Group here: group.trip.com.

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