So yes, H World Group attaches great importance to South China. And in the last two years, with our organizational optimization, with our lower tier city strategy, I’m very happy to report that our penetration in South China is more than doubled than the level of 2019. So that means we are very, very confident in the development of South China market and we will further improve our penetration in this region. Thank you. I also would love to add that not only do we see very good development for our own business, we also receive increasing recognition from the local consumers for our brand. And that has been shown by our operational results in this region. Our operational results in this region is leading. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you for the questions. One moment for the next question. Next from the line of Lydia Ling from Citi. Please ask your question.
Lydia Ling : So management, this is Lydia from Citi and so I have two questions. The first one is, just for sharing your full year RevPAR guidance, so could you give us some color on your outlook for the next year RevPAR trend and especially given the very high pace this year. And also India has shown a very strong performance this year. So do you think it could sustain next year. And so my second question is on extension. So closure, you know stock closure looks small in the second quarter, and so because of the COVID impact previously. So could you share with an updates on your July and also August net opening trend? And so yes, like the closure almost down in the first half. Thank you.
A – JIN Hui: [Interpreted] Let me first respond to your question regarding the – whether we are going to sustain such good performance for ADR and RevPAR. And then I think CFO can make some additions if necessary. I believe that each world always stay true to one point. That is, we must always shape our own core competitive edge in the China market. And given the uncertainties, we need to keep long-term sustainable, competitive market position. So facing the future uncertainties as the backdrop, I think for the overall improvement and sustainable development of ADR and OCC, the management attach great importance to these issues. In the future, we are going to have more localized marketing, covering multi scenarios. We will continue to leverage technologies to improve our overall conversion and our performance.
This definitely is going to be something we stay true to in the long term. That’s for your first question, regarding whether it is sustainable development in the future. Now on your second question, I don’t have any specific net opening numbers for July and August. But I must say, if you pay attention to our hotels in the pipeline, you see that the improvement of the signings for the higher-quality premium hotels in the pipeline, which definitely will take place of more openings in the second half this year and next year. Because usually, it takes us about half a year’s time to prepare the pipeline hotels into official opening. So as we have more hotels in our pipeline with the specific high-quality segment, it will definitely increase our next quarter openings.
Speaking of the closure of the lower-quality hotels, over the last few years, even if we were stricken the hardest during the pandemic, we stayed true to this operational strategy, that is, to improve our quality and to improve our products and services. This is a very important part of H World’s strategic transformation. So we will continue to either transform or upgrade or repackage the lower-quality 1.0 version and some other lower brands. This will continue to be our strategy. Thank you.
HE Jihong : Thank you. I just wanted to summarize here. We stay with our forecast this year or our guidance this year. We will open 1,400 hotels and plan to close 650 hotels.
Operator: Thank you for the questions. Our next question comes from the line of Lina Yan from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Lina Yan : So will translate my first question. So first question is to ask, like management to help us to reconsider the steady-state RevPAR for Huazhu. We got a lot of new information on the upgrade of Huazhu hotel portfolio over the COVID period. So if we think the overall hotel industry, the RevPAR probably will stabilize at 110% above 2019 level. Does that mean Huazhu hotel RevPAR will stabilize at a much higher level versus 2019, say 120% or even above? Yeah.
HE Jihong : Thank you for your question. I will take your question about RevPAR. Yes, we are very happy to see that Huazhu’s RevPAR recovery was higher than the average industry. Because really our continued product upgrade, product mix change and our effective sales effort. For the full year, we gave our guidance of 116% to 121%, and we remain confident that we can deliver this number. For the further, how RevPAR will develop in the near future beyond this year, RevPAR is always a result of the economic activity. I can only give you the confidence that Huazhu’s hotel is really very well positioned, independent of economic cycle in the short term, because our very large portfolio of our hotels are really affordable hotels. And we have observed that a lot of guests coming from different segments really enjoying our hotels as well.
Lina Yan : My second question is on the peer comparison. So we see some like peers who focus on upper-end limited-service hotels, deliver the very strong RevPAR growth and expansion growth, likely from a low base. But meanwhile, we have commented that business related travel has a moderate and gradual recovery. So can management help me reconcile the discrepancy and the comments and the results from the two perspectives?
JIN Hui : [Interpreted] Well, for your question, I think that we have different definitions on business-related travels with some of our competitors. But if you look at the statistics issued by Ctrip and other industrial players, you’ll notice such a common trend that is usually Q2 and summer holiday vacation are the peak seasons for China’s travel and leisure market and that’s always true. And speaking of the good performance in this period, larger reason comes from the stimulus package the government has taken to stimulate the overall leisure and tourism travel market on the overall macro culture and tourism market, right. For example, the barbecue festival in Zibo, and the Guizhou village basketball activities. The Chinese government has constantly been investing on promoting the culture and tourism sector.
So overall, in the mega trend, we definitely sense that on basis of such a peak season growth, we have seen very good performance with the demand. But in the pure commercial and travel-related trips and travels, I think partly it is impacted by Chinese macro-economic prospect. And partly it is because it usually delivers longer term recovery, because if you look at the reopening since now, it is just eight months. Eight months’ time is not long enough for the full recovery of this market. Yes, in the last several years, we have experienced some setbacks and it takes time to cure these and heal these setbacks. I think it’s very easy to understand. So I don’t think there will be too much of a discrepancy for all the players in the industry.
