HAIKOU, February 4. /TASS/. The new service for the delivery of duty free goods to customers was launched on February 2 in China's Hainan province, reported www.hinews.cn.
Now, goods purchased in duty free shops leaving the province can be received by mail at their destination, and residents of the island have the opportunity to leave purchased items in shops and pick them up after returning to Hainan. Previously, the service of duty free goods delivery to an airport and a train station was available if the departing person had a valid identity document and a ticket.
The expansion of the corresponding service, the news outlet writes, is in the interests of turning the province into an international center for tourism and consumption, as well as building a free trade port on Hainan.
The Chinese government launched a pilot program for the development of a chain of duty free shops on Hainan in 2011. The pandemic led to a slight drop in sales in the first half of 2020, but in the second half of the year there was a rapid increase amid the improvement in the epidemic situation in the country and the influx of Chinese tourists to the province. The increase in sales volumes was also enhanced by an increase from 30,000 to 100,000 yuan (from $ 4,200 to $ 14,200) in July, 2020, the personal quota for purchases in duty free shops in the province. The list of duty free goods was expanded from 38 to 45 items.
Two more duty free shops have recently opened on Hainan. Prior to their opening, there were seven stores on the island in Haikou, two of them located in the provincial capital, the rest in the resort city of Sanya in the south and in the coastal town of Boao in Qionghai District in the northeast of the island.