Hainan province’s 12 offshore duty free shops posted a +22.9 percent year-on-year rise in sales (duty free and duty paid) to CNY3.161 billion (USD442.54 million) during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday (10 to 18 February).
The Hainan Department of Commerce statistics show that travel retail sales accounted for about 21 percent of Hainan’s total tourism revenue during the Chinese New Year period.
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Average daily sales reached CNY395 million (USD55.3 million), an increase of +7.15 percent year-on-year.
Of the total, pure duty free sales reached CNY2.564 billion (USD359 million), generated by some 2 million transactions.
A Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports ‘report card’ for the holiday period reveals that the province attracted 9.5 million tourists and total tourism revenue of CNY15.127 billion (USD2.1 billion).
Those figures represent year-on-year increases of +48.8 percent and +62.7 percent respectively. In comparison to pre-pandemic 2019, they were up +52.6 percent and +76.7 percent respectively.
During the festival leading duty free stores in Hainan offered a range of promotional activities to drive consumption.
Stores provided exclusive shopping vouchers and VIP privileges in collaboration with airlines and travel platforms.
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Hotel voucher packages and surprise room upgrades proved popular with consumers during the festival. Shuttle buses and VIP privileges for shopping were also part of some brand offerings.
Retailers teamed up with online car platforms to launch exclusive vouchers for low-cost round-trip taxi vouchers to and from duty free shops.