TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780) accelerates its layout in the North American market, opening its first physical store and launching a localized app.

With the stable recovery of the global tourism industry, TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780) has accelerated its pace of "going global". On the morning of March 15th, local time in the western United States, TONGCHENGTRAVEL's first overseas physical store officially opened in Los Angeles. Representatives of airlines such as EVA Air, Air China, China Airlines, CATHAY PAC AIR, China Southern Airlines, Japan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Korean Air, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, and news media were invited to attend the opening ceremony. Ms. Gong Xiaolei, Assistant Vice President of TONGCHENGTRAVEL and CEO of the International Air Ticket Business Unit, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. (TONGCHENGTRAVEL Los Angeles physical store opening ceremony) The opening of TONGCHENGTRAVEL's physical store in Los Angeles is its first offline service site in overseas markets, aiming to strengthen offline services in the North American market and provide users with one-stop travel services such as global destination ticket booking, hotel booking, holiday booking, and visa processing through "online + offline" methods. Ms. Gong Xiaolei stated that TONGCHENGTRAVEL attaches great importance to the development of the US market. With the opening of the Los Angeles store, TONGCHENGTRAVEL will accelerate integration into the local market, collaborate deeply with local supply chain partners, and better serve local users with its mature "one-stop" travel platform. To better serve the North American market, TONGCHENGTRAVEL will soon launch a localized app called "WatsTravel" to provide North American customers with one-stop booking services for travel products such as flights and hotels. Ms. Gong Xiaolei is confident in the future prospects of the Los Angeles and North American international travel market. She believes that with the rapid recovery of flights between China and the United States, Los Angeles will become one of the important hubs for personnel exchange between China and the United States. Recently, the US Department of Transportation announced that starting from March 31st, Chinese airlines are allowed to increase the number of weekly flights between the US and China from 35 to 50. When US airlines reciprocally increase the flights between the US and China, the total number of round-trip flights between the two countries could reach 100 per week. Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States are key cities for increasing flights between China and the US, and will also be major beneficiaries for the accelerated recovery of cultural, economic, and trade exchanges between China and the US. In addition, TONGCHENGTRAVEL's North American business will also benefit from the strong recovery of the US civil aviation market in the future. According to data, as of February 2024, the overall recovery rate of the US civil aviation market reached 108%, higher than the global market average. The recovery rate for the domestic market in the US is 108%, and for international routes it is 110%. Since entering 2024, TONGCHENGTRAVEL has accelerated its layout in overseas markets. Currently, TONGCHENGTRAVEL has established its overseas headquarters office in Singapore, and will further expand its presence in markets such as the UK, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Canada, actively expanding international air tickets, international hotels, outbound holiday, and other businesses.