World's largest duty-free shop opens in Sanya
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E-mail Xinhua, September 2, 2014
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Tourists select cosmetics at Sanya Haitang Bay International Shopping Mall, which started business on Monday in the island province Hainan. Boasting 300 international brands, the 72,000-square-meter mall is the world’s largest duty-free shop, according to Wang Weimin, president of China International Travel Service Group, the mall’s investor. [China Daily] |
The world's largest duty-free shop (DFS) opened its doors on Monday in the coastal city of Sanya in the southern island province of Hainan.
Haitang Bay duty-free shopping center has attracted nearly 300 international brands. For several of them, including Prada, Rolex and Giorgio Armani, it is the first time they have appeared in a DFS on the Chinese mainland.
With an area of 72,000 square meters, the center replaces an existing DFS, just one seventh of the new store's size, in downtown Sanya.
China International Travel Service Group (CITS) has invested 5 billion yuan (about 814 million U.S. dollars) in the center, which is run by China Duty Free Group under CITS.
Wang Weimin, chairman of CITS, said the new store excels in functions, the number of brands and shopping area compared with any others in the world, and called its opening is a milestone for China's duty-free market.
Surging demand
The State Council, China's cabinet, gave Hainan permission to run a trial duty-free program in April 2011 and make the island a world-class tourist destination by 2020.
In 2011, two stores opened in Hainan, the other in Haikou, the provincial capital. Non-locals could make duty-free purchases twice a year when leaving the island, each capped at 5,000 yuan. In 2012, the limit was raised to 8,000 yuan.
As of Aug. 15, the two stores, now rated third most important attraction for tourists on the island, had sold products worth 9.22 billion yuan.
The Haitang Bay store was built partly to address consumers' complaints of overcrowding in the old store and the Haikou shop also has plans to expand from its current area of 5,000 square meters to 6,000 square meters this year.
The duty-free policy is now at the heart of local tourists. The island's 9 million residents received 36.7 million overnight tourists last year, and the figure is expected to exceed 40 million in 2014.
Tourists are also spending more in Hainan. The Hainan Tourism Development Commission (HTDC) reckons the average tourist spent 2,469 yuan in 2010, rising to 2,971 yuan in 2013. The splurge means tourism revenue increased by 15 percent from 2011 to 2013, with duty-free sales making up about 10 percent of the total.
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