Tripadvisor, Inc. (TRIP): A Bull Case Theory

We came across a bullish thesis on Tripadvisor, Inc. on Yet Another Value Blog’s Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls’ thesis on TRIP. Tripadvisor, Inc.'s share was trading at $12.60 as of February 4th. TRIP’s trailing and forward P/E were 22.15 and 6.12 respectively according to Yahoo Finance.

TripAdvisor, Inc., an online travel company, engages in the provision of travel guidance products and services worldwide. TRIP has long been considered a “widow maker” for investors, attracting growth, value, special situation, and John Malone–inspired shareholders over the past decade, only to deliver deeply disappointing returns. Despite operating in a massive and structurally growing global travel market, TRIP consistently failed to translate the influence of its dominant review platform into meaningful monetization, with initiatives such as Instant Book and Tripadvisor Plus falling short.

While the stock often appeared optically cheap versus peers like Booking Holdings and Expedia and benefited from periodic share repurchases, TRIP has declined roughly 80% over the past ten years, dramatically underperforming both indices and competitors, making prior bullish theses painful in hindsight.

The current investment case rests on the view that conditions have meaningfully changed. TRIP today exhibits a classic goodco/badco dynamic, but with a critical inflection now underway. Historically, the company’s legacy core business represented the declining “badco,” while Viator, its experiences marketplace, represented the higher-growth “goodco.”

Importantly, Q3 2025 marked the first quarter in which Viator’s revenue exceeded that of the legacy TripAdvisor segment, a milestone that often precedes valuation reratings as investor focus shifts toward the growth engine rather than the melting ice cube. This revenue crossover suggests the business mix is finally flipping in a way that could alter market perception.

In addition, TRIP offers meaningful M&A optionality, with Viator and TheFork remaining valuable standalone assets that could attract strategic interest, particularly as scale and profitability improve. Activist involvement adds further pressure for capital allocation discipline or strategic actions, while the stock’s depressed valuation provides downside support through “generic cheapness.”

Finally, emerging AI-driven use cases around travel discovery and personalization introduce longer-term upside optionality. While TRIP’s history warrants skepticism, the convergence of business mix transformation, strategic flexibility, and valuation support creates a compellingly bullish setup that appears fundamentally different from past false starts.

Previously, we covered a bullish thesis on Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) by Jimmy Investor in April 2025, which highlighted the global travel recovery, OTA market dominance, AI-led personalization, and strong free cash flow generation. BKNG’s stock price has appreciated by approximately 0.73% since our coverage. Yet Another Value Blog shares a similar view but emphasizes turnaround-driven business mix change and M&A optionality at Tripadvisor, Inc. (TRIP).

Tripadvisor, Inc. is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 39 hedge fund portfolios held TRIP at the end of the third quarter which was 40 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of TRIP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than TRIP and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None.