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Duty free trade on Hainan up by 141% in May

At present, there are four duty free stores on the island

HAIKOU, June 25. /TASS/. Sales of Hainan's duty free stores in May amounted to more than 1.9 billion yuan (about $ 279 million). According to the Hainan Daily, last month the volume of duty free trade grew by 141% compared to the same period last year.

According to the news outlet, in May Hainan's economy enjoyed a revival. Thus, the volume of retail trade last month increased by 6.7% year on year, which is by 6.1 percentage points more than in April. One of the key factors that influenced consumer activity was the discounts in Hainan duty free shops during the International Workers' Day weekend (May 1-5), the newspaper writes.

At present, there are four duty free stores on the island: two in Haikou, one each in the resort town of Sanya in the southern part of the island and in Qionghai in the east of the province.

On April 20, 2011, the Chinese State Council approved the launch of a pilot program for the development of a duty-free store chain on the Island of Hainan to promote the island as a world-class resort.

In order to create the most favorable conditions for tourists, in December 2018, the authorities decided to increase the maximum amount of duty free purchases on the island from 16,000 to 30,000 yuan (from $ 2.280 to $ 4.480) without restrictions on the number of purchased goods.

According to official statistics, in 2018 sales in duty free shops on Hainan reached 10.1 billion yuan (about $ 1.47 billion), which is about 26% of the relevant national figure. In 2019 the sales grew by more than 34% to 13.61 billion yuan ($ 1.97 billion).

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