Duty-free shopping in Hainan, a southern Chinese island province, saw a double-digit surge in sales during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, reflecting growing consumer demand, just weeks after mainland China dropped its zero-Covid policy.
SEE ALSO: Hainan year-end daily duty free sales average USD 20.6 million
Sales at Hainan’s 12 offshore duty-free shops totaled CNY 2.6 billion (USD 380 million), an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous Spring Festival holiday in 2022, and more than three times the figure recorded during the same period in 2019, reported Hainan Daily, citing data from the provincial department of commerce on Saturday.
The number of shoppers for duty-free products in Hainan from January 21 to 27 totaled 157,000, up 9.51 percent from last year’s Spring Festival holiday, which ran from January 31 to February 6. Each shopper spent an average of nearly CNY 10,000, according to official figures.
During this year’s Spring Festival holiday, the province received nearly 6.4 million tourists, up 18 percent year-on-year, and took in some CNY 9.3 billion in tourism revenue, according to the provincial tourism authority.
In June 2020, the Chinese government revealed plans to build Hainan into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by 2050.
More recently, Haikou International Duty-Free Shopping Complex, the world’s largest stand-alone duty-free shopping mall, opened in Haikou, capital of Hainan, in October last year.