In the wave of high-quality development within the cultural and tourism industry, women are becoming the core backbone of the sector, driving employment stability and innovation in diverse roles. In 2025, Trip.com Group's platform ecosystem has cumulatively facilitated flexible employment for over 120,000 people in the cultural and tourism field, supported the transformation and development of 3,500 small and medium-sized travel agencies, and created more than 30,000 new types of cultural and tourism positions, such as travel customizers. Women account for over 65% of core service roles like customizers and in-trip butlers. From independent travel agency operators and frontline driver-guides breaking occupational stereotypes to travel customizers balancing family and passion and female engineers delving into technological innovation, Trip.com is breaking career boundaries for female practitioners and building a full-cycle growth stage. Their presence spans all tracks including business, management, and technology. Through a series of female-friendly policies and specialized empowerment programs, the company continuously unleashes women's professional potential, helping thousands of women balance family and passion on the cultural and tourism track, achieving resonance between personal value and industry development.
Flexible employment empowerment allows women to balance family and passion. Li Jiarong, head of Kunming Yongrun Travel Agency, has collaborated with the Trip.com platform for five years. Riding the tailwind of "inbound tourism," her company's inbound tourism sector grew from an initially unformed scale to achieving over 200% business growth in a year, generating more than 13 million RMB in revenue last year. Two-thirds of her team are female customizers. By utilizing the AI itinerary planning tools provided by the platform, the efficiency of previously cumbersome itinerary planning has been improved threefold. The positive business growth has further driven a large number of female talents, who, like her, transitioned from other industries, to achieve stable and flexible employment in the inbound tourism sector.
Li Dan, a female driver-guide from Sichuan, has broken original gender stereotypes by leading a team of female drivers to deeply cultivate complex routes on the Western Sichuan Plateau. Faced with market competition, she proactively shifted from "low-price competition" to "quality service," transforming from a mere "driver" into a "golden driver-guide" holding a tour guide certificate capable of providing English commentary and in-depth derivative services. Furthermore, by operating short videos to document journey and service details, she has gained a stable customer base. Her "Mulan Driver-Guide Team" is not only a leading driver-guide team in the Sichuan-Chongqing region but has also gradually become a safety guardian and confidante for solo female travelers during their journeys.
Song Xihua, a travel customizer with eight years of experience at Trip.com, as a military spouse and mother of two children, has traveled to over 100 countries while accompanying her children's growth. In 2025, while leading a tour in Seychelles, a guest suddenly suffered a cerebral infarction. At the desperate moment of being denied boarding at the gate, Song Xihua did not retreat. She quickly coordinated resources from the embassy, Chinese business associations, and the company, accompanying the guest through 11 days of medical treatment and waiting in a foreign land. From arranging a medical charter flight to comforting family members, from providing overnight hospital companionship to multi-party communication and coordination, she used her meticulousness and empathy to build a warm protective wall for the guest. She protects every tourist with professionalism and care, and through passing on her experience, she helps more young female customizers grow into capable business backbones, allowing this professional "female power" to be passed on.
From left to right: Li Dan, Li Jiarong, Song Xihua.
The highly flexible and inclusive nature of the cultural and tourism industry provides broad space for women to balance family and career. In 2025, Trip.com's platform ecosystem cumulatively facilitated flexible employment for over 120,000 individuals, including operators of small and medium-sized travel agencies, travel customizers, in-trip butlers, and driver-guides. Among them, the total number of female practitioners reached nearly 26,700, making them a crucial stabilizing force for employment in the cultural and tourism industry. Trip.com has cumulatively driven the transformation and development of 3,500 small and medium-sized travel agencies and created over 30,000 new cultural and tourism professional positions, such as travel customizers and in-trip butlers. In core service areas like travel customizers and in-trip butlers, female practitioners account for over 65%. The flexible employment models and comprehensive platform support allow women's advantages in communication, service, and meticulous management to be fully utilized, enabling them to achieve career growth and self-realization. Women have become an important core force in the cultural and tourism industry.
Supporting the diverse development of female employees and strengthening growth support, Trip.com Group is broadening career paths for women and empowering their diverse growth. Female participation in core areas within the group, such as technological research and development, service innovation, and management decision-making, has significantly increased. By the end of 2025, female employees accounted for 57.4% of Trip.com Group. In terms of role distribution, women cover diverse functions including business operations, management, and technology research and development. Specifically, female managers in revenue-generating departments reached 52.3%, females in senior leadership positions accounted for 33%, and women in STEM technical roles also reached 33%.
From left to right: Chen Yan, Trip.com Group IBU Basic Public Development Team.
In terms of technological innovation, female engineers have performed outstandingly in practices using AI to reshape the cultural and tourism landscape. For instance, a five-woman team won the hackathon championship with the "Digital Travel Sandbox Triptown" project. Simultaneously, through the "Travel Mulan" live-streaming youth training camp, the group has trained over 1,000 university students, helping young women like Chen Yan grow from beginners into professional hosts capable of achieving single-session viewer metrics exceeding one million and obtaining internship opportunities at the headquarters, effectively broadening women's career development channels.
In the future, Trip.com will continue to deepen its platform ecosystem and enhance female empowerment initiatives, broadening career paths and unleashing growth potential for more women, allowing "female power" to continuously inject fresh vitality into the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry.
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