Hainan to ease its duty-free policy for tourists

China's southern province, Hainan, will lift the cap on tourists' duty-free shopping in efforts to promote the island as an international tourism destination.

According to the Ministry of Finance, non-residents leaving the island could make duty-free purchases of up to 16,000 yuan a year, with no limits on shopping times. Before this adjustment, tourists could only use the duty-free shopping service twice in Hainan.

It also allows duty-free shops to introduce online shopping channels for tourists.

The new policy will take effect on Feb 1.

The offshore duty-free program was launched in April 2011. Hainan is the only mainland province, as well as the fourth region around the world, to support such program. Duty-free services can be found at the Haitang Bay Duty-free Shopping Center in Sanya and the duty-free shop in the Haikou Meilan International Airport.

Local customs department figures show that between the launch of the program and the end of the year, Hainan's duty-free stores received more than 5.73 million customers who spent a total of 16.5 billion yuan. In 2015, the sales volume reached 5.54 billion yuan, an increase of 28.3 percent year-on-year.

Wang Huiping, deputy director of Hainan's Department of Finance, said the changes are in response to complaints from tourists regarding the limitation on shopping times and values, as well as a lack for online platforms.

“In 2015, the sales volume of Hainan duty-free shops only accounted 4.9 percent of domestic luxury product sales. And only 10 percent of total tourists passing through Haikou and Sanya airport actually bought duty-free goods. The percentage is relatively low. By now, the duty-free policy has been adjusted to three times. And every adjustment brought about 20 percent of growth in terms of sales volume. These adjustments make it more convenient for tourists to shop and use up service. It will promote growth in both sales volume and the number of tourists who enjoy the service,” Said Wang.