HAIKOU /China/, June 27. /TASS/. The Commerce Department of the southern Chinese province of Hainan has issued coupons worth 10 million yuan ($1.3 million) offering discounts to customers at duty free stores in Sanya city. That's according to the Sanya Daily newspaper.
The flow of visitors has increased significantly after the emission, an employee of a duty free store told the newspaper. The increased demand for duty free goods in the city is also due to the Dragon Boat Festival holiday weekend.
Duty free stores in Sanya have become a growth driver of the city's tourist market in recent years. According to Huang Weili, Director of Sanya Municipal Bureau of Commerce, authorities will continue to promote new products and hold various campaigns for customers in order to further develop the duty free market. A series of shopping festivals are planned for June 28 at one of the city's largest shopping centers.
The Hainan authorities have launched a pilot program to create a developed duty free network in April 2011. There are duty free stores in the administrative center of Haikou province, in the resort of Sanya, coastal Boao and Wanning. In total, there are 12 stores of this kind on the island.
In 2022 the total sales of duty free stores in Hainan amounted to 48.71 billion yuan ($6.7 billion). In 2021 the figure exceeded 60 billion yuan (about $8.3 billion). This year, the island's authorities expect to reach sales of 80 billion yuan ($ 11.1 billion).
