(Yicai) Nov. 2 -- Most of the 26 listed Chinese tourism companies that have disclosed their third-quarter earnings have at least doubled their net profit this year from a year ago as more people got excited about traveling after the Covid-19 pandemic.

From January to September, 18 travel and hotel companies, or nearly 70 percent of all recorded net profit growth exceeding 100 percent from a year earlier, Yicai learned by analyzing their earnings reports. The group of firms that widened their revenues tallied 25 out of 26.

The summer travel boom prompted many more people to go on trips, resulting in a sound performance at some listed cultural tourism companies, BOC International China wrote in a report. The fourth quarter is usually an off-season for cultural tourism, but wintertime tourism in snowy regions and duty-free store sales in southern China's Hainan province are still worthy of investors' attention, the private bank added.

In the first three quarters, the best performer was Jiuhuashan Tourism Development which recorded a more than sixteen-fold boost in net profit to CNY152 million (USD20.8 million). Revenue and profit surges were caused by a swarm of tourists flocking to the facilities run by the company in Nine Glorious Mountains, including cablecars and hotels, and tourism market recovery, it said.

Many firms managed to improve their operating metrics. The group of revenue winners included UTour Group as the travel agency mainly engaged in outbound tourism logged a more than seven-fold increase in operating income, according to its financial report. Twelve firms, including Songcheng Performance Development and Guilin Tourism, more than doubled their revenues.

Five companies, including Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group, Xi’an Tourism, Huatian Hotel Group, and Caissa Tosun Development, reported losses. In comparison, 12 firms turned their earlier losses into gains.

In the group of five, reasons for the losses varied. Zhang Jia Jie Tourism, the manager of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan province, said it was still unprofitable despite managing to increase its revenue this year due to its subsidiaries' heavy depreciation, amortization, and financial expenses.

Editor: Emmi Laine