New customs ops boost Hainan

The island-wide special customs operations in Hainan province have ignited a tourism and spending surge, which is transforming the free trade port into a new global consumption landmark.

For example, duty-free sales in Sanya exceeded 100 million yuan ($14.2 million) for five consecutive days, said the Sanya Municipal Bureau of Commerce. Specifically, duty-free sales in the city hit 102 million yuan on Monday, following a strong streak that began on Dec 18.

Analysts attribute the boom to Hainan's evolving trade policies, which are enhancing its appeal as a winter getaway and shopping destination, especially with the New Year and Spring Festival holidays approaching.

Travel bookings reflect the strong momentum. Online travel platform Qunar reported a 51 percent year-on-year increase in flight bookings to Sanya for the upcoming New Year holiday, with bookings to Haikou up 19 percent.

International interest is rising sharply. International flight bookings to Haikou for the New Year period jumped over 40 percent, while Spring Festival bookings more than doubled. Travelers from Russia, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand are leading the surge, signaling Hainan's growing resonance as a global vacation hot spot.

Dev Bagchi, an Indian businessman, told China Daily that: "We came for business purposes, but later discovered Hainan is also a tourism destination. It's fantastic. It's a very good place. I will tell everybody in India to visit here, very nice people, very nice place. The weather is very good, just like Mumbai. You know, people from India, prefer to go to Europe for their holidays and I would like to tell them to come to China and especially come to this place, Hainan."

Behind such a tourism and spending surge is a policy breakthrough. According to China's Ministry of Finance, the special customs operations have expanded Hainan's zero-tariff product coverage from 21 percent to 74 percent, with tariff-free items jumping from about 1,900 tariff lines to approximately 6,600.

"These measures, combined with streamlined customs clearance procedures, solidify Hainan's competitive edge as a low-cost, high-efficiency trade hub," said Gao Ruifeng, head of Haikou customs. "It becomes a key gateway for foreign goods entering the Chinese market."

The policy impact translated into remarkable statistics from day one. According to Haikou customs, on Dec 18, Hainan's offshore duty-free sales skyrocketed to 161 million yuan, involving 24,800 shoppers and 118,000 purchased items. These figures represented staggering year-on-year increases of 61 percent, 53 percent and 25.5 percent, respectively.

The epicenter of this commercial explosion was the China Duty Free Group's Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex. Anchored in a deep integration of "duty-free shopping plus culture and tourism", the mall launched a grand promotional campaign for the occasion, including giving away shopping vouchers. It also specially curated an exclusive VIP salon for foreign visitors, a strategic move designed to transform abstract policy dividends into tangible, experiential benefits and to craft a diversified, immersive new shopping scenario for foreign tourists.

The result was a comprehensive eruption of market vitality. Data revealed that on Dec 18, customer traffic at the complex exceeded 36,000, a surge of over 60 percent year-on-year, while sales revenue soared by an impressive 85 percent. These standout figures served as a potent testament to the vigorous kinetic energy unleashed by Hainan FTP's institutional innovation.

A spokesperson from the sales department of the duty-free complex said, "To welcome this historic moment of island-wide special customs operations, we began planning and preparing three months in advance, increasing our inventory to create a high-quality shopping experience for domestic and foreign travelers."