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Tourists spend more than $317 mln at Hainan's duty free stores in July

Over the recent years, Hainan's duty free zones have shown solid revenue growth

HAIKOU, August 3. /TASS/. Sales of duty free shops on Hainan for almost a month after increasing the quota per person to 100,000 yuan (about $ 14,200) starting from July 1, amounted to 2.22 billion yuan (about $ 317.4 million), reported Xinhua citing the Chinese General Administration of Customs (the period from July 1 to July 27).

The corresponding figure, the authorities said, grew by 234.19% compared to the same period last year. During this period, over 280,000 tourists visited the island. The growth of this indicator on an annualized basis amounted to 42.71%.

Since July, Hainan's quota for one person for purchases in duty free shops has been increased from 30,000 to 100,000 yuan (from $ 4,200 to $ 14,200), and the list of duty-free goods has been expanded from 38 to 45 items.

Four duty free shops are currently open on Hainan: two of them are located in the provincial capital, Haikou, the rest — in Sanya and the coastal town of Boao. According to the latest data, their sales in May amounted to more than 1.9 billion yuan (about $ 279 million), which is by 141% more compared to the same period last year.

Over the recent years, Hainan's duty free zones have shown solid revenue growth. Thus, in 2018, sales in duty free shops on Hainan reached 10.1 billion yuan (about $ 1.47 billion), which is about 26% of the corresponding national figure. Last year, sales grew by more than 34%, to 13.61 billion yuan ($ 1.97 billion).

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