Tripadvisor Group continued to tout its efforts in the experiences sector during its earnings call for the first quarter of 2025.
Even amid the current economic environment, Tripadvisor Group CEO Matt Goldberg told analysts that customers have been “largely defending travel as a category, especially experiences.” And while the company has seen “shifts” in demand, experiences growth remains healthy.
“While it’s too early for me with my crystal ball to say to you what I think is going to happen, I want to recognize what we’ve seen historically and also give color to the fact that what seems to be happening is that the consumer wants to travel, is defending the category and leaning into experiences—that’s what they’re telling us,” Goldberg said, noting that similar to last year, travelers are actively booking summer trips.
“Travelers will say they're prioritizing experiences that are in their budget, and they’re planning to book more experiences—that’s up from last year...We certainly feel good about our ability to serve people as they think about choosing on price.”
Subscribe to our newsletter below
Tripadvisor Group chief financial officer Mike Noonan also noted that because tours and activities booking platform Viator is largely a North American booker base, it is potentially “less susceptible to some of these international trade route pressures.”
With the relaunching of Airbnb Experiences and Booking Holdings’ increased focus on experiences, executives said that Viator stands out due to its vertical focus on experiences.
When asked about Google's recent changes to auctions for activities and experiences, Noonan said that nothing the company does “surprises” Tripadvisor Group.
"They're going to continue to experiment with different ad placements and how they get different people involved in their marketing platforms—that is expected. We will continue to be active and involved in how we experiment and benefit from those."
Financial results were better than expected
Tripadvisor Group reported $398 million in revenue for the
first quarter of 2025, a 1% increase from the same period last year.
The figure exceeded expectations by roughly $10 million.
The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $44 million for Q1, accounting
for 11% of total revenue, and a net loss of $11 million for the first quarter. Non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) income was $21 million.
“We are pleased with our first quarter results, meeting or
exceeding our expectations across the board,” Goldberg said in a release.
“As we approach peak travel season, our teams are
laser focused on delivering for travelers and partners, leveraging our unique
and trusted position in travel and experiences as the foundation for growth.
Despite the recent macro uncertainty, we remain confident in the long-term
growth opportunity ahead, as we continue to drive a durable relationship with
our customers through best-in-class travel and experiences offerings.”
Subscribe to our newsletter below
The company, which owns the Tripadvisor brand, Viator and
TheFork, reported $413 million in total costs and expenses, an increase of 1% compared
to Q1 2024. As of March 31, it reported $1.2 billion in cash and cash
equivalents, marking an increase of $90 million from December 31, 2024.
On the brand level, Tripadvisor reported an 8% decline
in revenue for Q1 2025, coming in at $219 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $65
million (29.6% of revenue), compared to $78 million (32.4%) during Q1 2024.
Viator reported $156 million in revenue for the first
quarter, representing a 10% growth year-over-year. Gross bookings value also
totaled $1.1 billion, which was a 10% increase from Q1 2024. The company saw a
15% increase in the number of bookings, which totaled 5 million in the first
quarter. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $18 million (-11.3% of revenue), which was a
decrease from the same period last year at $27 million (-19.5% of revenue).
TheFork reported revenue of $46 million, up 12% from the
same quarter in 2025. The total number of bookings also grew by 5% in Q1 2025,
compared with the same time last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $3 million (-7.5% of
revenue), which was down from $27 million in Q1 2024 (-8.5% of revenue).
“We delivered solid first quarter results, reflecting
healthy performance in our marketplace offerings and stable trends in our
hotels offerings,” Noonan said. “We exited the quarter in a strong position to
deliver on our expectations for the year. We will continue to monitor the macro
backdrop but remain focused on executing against our operating priorities.”
Continuing with AI initiatives
The company shed light on artificial intelligence (AI) strategies as well, with Goldberg telling analysts that Tripadvisor Group saw partnerships as a way to "choose the AI leaders in the ecosystem that we wanted to learn from.”
Goldberg touched on its partnership with AI-powered answer engine Perplexity, which it announced in January and launched in late March.
“With Perplexity, it puts us in a position to understand what’s happening with AI-first search, and we’ve got great content to attract high-intent traffic with an opportunity to drive hotel and experiences bookings,” Goldberg said.
According to the CEO, the partnership allows the company to learn about optimizing in a large language model and search engine optimization environment to “reimagine user experience” and drive value.
While it’s still early, Tripadvisor Group is also “deepening its partnership” with Open AI to better understand how agentic AI can be used to reshape trip planning and booking, Goldberg said.
When asked about how AI can be leveraged to drive retention and loyalty, Goldberg told analysts the the company is “focused on creating an AI-first product execution culture.”
At Viator, the focus is on improving personalized recommendations and B2B product listing, among other initiatives. For Tripadvisor, Goldberg said that generative AI trip planning is growing and will become “highly integrated” into the user experience.
“The exciting part is I think our culture is shifting. The people in our company are excited about this. We've given them all the tools to experiment every day, and I think this is just getting started and you know we will see real tailwinds,” Goldberg said.
Merger completion
Tripadvisor executives also discussed the recently completed merger with Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, which was finalized on April 29 for $430 million.
“Our capital structure is just much cleaner and simplified. We removed that notion of an overhang and the distraction that we've had as we've tried to work through that over the last year," Goldberg said of the merger's completion.
“We have a real opportunity to simplify our story. It's been too complex in the past, and I'm really starting to focus very clearly on where we see the value drivers ahead.”
* This story was updated following the close of the May 7, 2025 earnings call.