News

One more thing to add to Sanya's popularity

By Huang Yimingand Liu Xiaoli (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 10:11

Opening ceremony for Hainan's new offshore duty-free policy experiment. Photo provided to China Daily

A recently announced duty-free entitlement brought an influx of tourists to Sanya in April and May, a normally dull part of the tourist business.

On Labor's Day, Sanya became one of the hottest domestic tourist destinations, with Lijiang, Xiamen, Xi'an, Shanghai and Qingdao lagging behind, according to Kuxun, a leading online travel service provider.

The duty-free program allows tourists and Hainan residents to get a tax refund on any items they buy in a duty-free store, before flying out of Hainan, if they have a valid ID and ticket.

Tourists can make duty-free purchases twice a year and Hainanese, once a year.

They are limited to no more than 5,000 yuan ($762) worth of goods per person each time.

Tourist can also buy one item worth more than 5,000 yuan each time, with a lower tax rate, including customs duties, VAT and consumer tax.

The process works as follows:

First, get a purchase card at the duty-free store, with the bar code recording their personal information, flight information and record of purchases. Members of a group can get the cards at the reception desk and individual tourists from the cashier.

Second, after paying for the goods, the store sends the items to the airport to be picked up, either at Haikou's Meilan Airport of or Sanya's Phoenix Airport.

Third, collect the purchases at the airport by showing an ID, receipt, and boarding pass.

To make sure that the items arrive at the airport on time, tourists departing from Meilan Airport need to make their purchases a day ahead of time, and those leaving from Phoenix, six hours ahead of time.

Travel agencies have added these duty-free shops to their routes, and this has gone down fairly well, as can be seen by the swarms of tourists.

The Sanya duty-free store had 42,000 customers making more than 10,000 purchases during the Labor Day holiday, according to Sanya's tourist authorities.

The program started on April 20, and the duty-free store has been thronged with customers every day since then.

Phoenix saw a 4.1 percent year-on-year increase in its daily passenger volume, climbing to 75,062. Sanya tourist attractions saw increased traffic, with South Mountain receiving 41,000 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 24.2 percent. End of the Earth got 40,200 tourists, up 14.2 percent from last year.

Sanya's duty-free prices are mostly on a par with those in Hong Kong.

According to Teng Rui, deputy manager of the Sanya store, their luxury goods are generally 15 to 35 percent lower than on the mainland, thanks to the tax exemption and reduced other fees.

Sanya authorities are now looking at building a large Duty-free Shopping Block, a grand undertaking land part of the improvements in Sanya's commercial infrastructure, according to Wu Yanjun, deputy mayor.

The duty-free shopping has given Sanya even more allure, something to add to its combination of sun, sea and sand and it is on its way to becoming a popular tourist destination all year round.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page12)