According to Sanya Customs, during the May Day holiday from April 29 to May 3, Sanya's offshore duty-free sales totaled 587 million yuan ($14.5 million), while the number of shoppers reached 72,700, indicating an increase of 170.5 percent and 190.8 percent year-on-year, respectively.
During the holiday, Haikou Customs supervised 883 million yuan in offshore duty-free sales, an increase of 120 percent when compared to the May Day holiday in 2022. Additionally, Haikou registered 109,000 shoppers during this time, an increase of 158 percent.
Starting from April 1, Hainan's offshore duty-free shopping added the "guaranteed pick-up" and "buy and pick-up" delivery methods, which mean that consumers do not need to wait until they are leaving Hainan to receive their goods. “Now we can pick up our goods immediately after paying for them, which solves our problem of insufficient shopping time," said a tourist surnamed Fang.
Major duty-free shops in Sanya anticipated and prepared for the recently-passed May Day holiday. These shops improved their service quality and launched promotional activities during the holiday, and attracted many tourists.