(Yicai Global) Sept. 25 -- China's largest online travel agency Trip.com Group has reported a 91.2 percent improvement on its staggering losses in the first quarter as domestic tourism recovered in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic with both the firm's hotel booking and ticketing businesses doing even better than a year ago.

The firm, formerly known as Ctrip, posted net losses of CNY476 million (USD70.4 million) for the three months ending June 30, a massive improvement on the losses of CNY5.4 billion in the first three months of the year, according to its second-quarter financial report released today. Revenue was down 64 percent year on year to CNY3.2 billion (USD469.3 million).

The Shanghai-based firm is expecting a 50 percent drop in net profit in the third quarter year on year to around CNY1.2 billion, without taking into account non-operating costs such as staff equity incentives, the company said.

Income from accommodation bookings fell 63 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year, but was up 9 percent from the first quarter, to CNY1.3 billion (USD190.5 million).

Bookings at top hotels achieved double-digit growth last month from August 2019 and ticket sales at Chinese scenic spots were also better than a year earlier as more than 10,000 tourism sites re-opened and domestic travel got back into swing.

Many markets have been on the rebound since the April low, Chairman Liang Jianzhang said. Trip.com has been holding events overseas to promote local tourism products based on its post-epidemic experience in China with the result that overseas hotel bookings over the last two months have more than doubled from a year earlier.

Trip.com's stock price [NASDAQ:TCOM] closed up 0.33 percent to USD27.75 per share yesterday, giving it a market capitalization of USD16.5 billion.

Editor: Kim Taylor