BEIJING (PingWest) — China’s largest online travel operator Trip.com announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020.

The company reported net revenue of RMB4.7 billion (US$669 million), down 42% from the same period last year. Net revenue for Q1 2020 decreased by 43% from the previous quarter, because the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges to the global travel industry.

Trip.com recorded a net loss of 5.4 billion yuan ($754 million), compared to a net income attributable to Trip.com Group's shareholders  of 4.6 billion yuan in the same period last year.

But the company has seen stable recovery of travel activities. "In China, travel activities hit bottom in February, and have since been consistently on a recovery track. In recent weeks, the recovery in high-end hotel meaningfully outpaced other segments, thanks to our timely product innovation for the COVID-19 new normality. Travel is human nature and we have full confidence that the industry will return and reach new high as the pandemic recedes,” said James Liang, Executive Chairman of Trip.com.

In the Q&A session at the company’s financial results conference call, James Liang, founder and CEO of Trip.com, share his thoughts on how the COVID-19 will reshape users needs and users behavior in the travel industry, as well as VR’s potential substitution of trips. “Business trip needs has a closely related to economic recovery. 80% of users we visited considered expenditures on business trips will recover to the normal level and even increase,” adding his thoughts on VR’s effects that “While VR technology has developed rapidly, demand for trips has also grown continuously as it meets people’s spiritual needs.”