Hainan duty-free sales hit 540m yuan during holiday

Offshore duty-free shops in China's island province of Hainan raked in a record high of 540 million yuan ($83.59 million) during the New Year's Day holiday, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

During the 2021 New Year's Day holiday, Haikou Customs supervised the sales of 669,000 offshore duty-free goods, up 200 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from Haikou Customs.

The sales volume also witnessed a 195.16 percent year-on-year growth to reach 540 million yuan during this year's holiday, the statistics indicated.

The number of visits by shoppers increased 80.9 percent year-on-year to reach 76,000 during the same period.

From July 1, 2020, the duty-free shopping quota in Hainan was raised to 100,000 yuan per year from the previous 30,000 yuan, while the purchase limitations were significantly cut and more duty-free products were offered.

From July 1 to Dec 31, Haikou Customs supervised the sales of 23.82 million duty-free goods, with the sales volume hitting 19.99 billion yuan and number of visits by shoppers reaching nearly 3 million, up 158.2 percent, 191.6 percent and 59.3 percent, respectively, over the same period last year.

The number of offshore duty-free shops in Hainan increased to seven with the opening of three offshore duty-free shops on Dec 30, the report said.