HAIKOU /China/, March 30. /TASS/. Sales of duty free stores in the southern Chinese province of Hainan increased by 33% year on year to 12.87 billion yuan (about $2.02 billion at current exchange rate) in January - February this year. This was reported by Hainan Provincial Bureau of Statistics.
The number of customers in duty free stores on the island reached 2.1 million during the first two months of 2022, which is an increase of 36% compared to the same period last year. The number of purchases hit 12.6 million, which is a 53% year-over-year increase.
The paper also noted that the stores were negatively impacted in March by outbreaks of COVID-19 in China. Between March 1 and March 23, the chain's sales were 2.29 billion yuan (about $361.6 million).
In 2011, the Hainan authorities launched a pilot program to create a developed duty-free network. Currently there are already 10 duty free stores on the island, they are located in the city of Haikou, which is the provincial capital, the resort of Sanya, as well as in the coastal town of Boao in Qionghai district in the northeast of Hainan.
As of July 1, 2020, the provincial authorities increased the quota per person on purchases in the province's duty-free stores from 30,000 to 100,000 yuan (from 4,71,000 to $15,72,000 at current exchange rates). The list of duty-free goods was expanded from 38 to 45 items. Since February 2 last year Hainan also launched a delivery service of duty-free goods to the customer's destination by mail for those leaving the island.
In 2021 the volume of sales of duty free stores in Hainan exceeded 60 billion yuan (about $ 9.4 billion), an increase of 84% year on year.