Duty-free stores in the southern Chinese province of Hainan set a new record for daily sales, selling 700 million yuan worth of goods (about $97.6 million at current exchange rates) in a single day. This was reported on Saturday by the Hainan Daily newspaper.
According to the newspaper, the world's largest duty-free shopping center was opened on Friday in Haikou - the administrative center of the province. At least 800 famous Chinese and foreign brands are represented in it, including 25 that are exhibited in Hainan for the first time. The mall is the 11th duty-free store in Hainan.
According to the Hainan Daily, on the day of the opening there were over 44,000 visitors, with sales of the shopping center reaching 60 million yuan (about $ 8.37 million). The total sales of 11 duty free stores on the island exceeded the record of 700 million yuan on October 28. It is emphasized that this figure is almost twice the previous record.
The newspaper also notes that in order to stimulate consumption and to celebrate the opening of the Haikou mall, authorities will issue consumer coupons from October 27 to November 1, which will total 4 million yuan (about $557.9 thousand) for duty-free products, as well as retail consumer vouchers for foodstuffs totaling 1 million yuan (about $139.5 thousand).
Hainan authorities have launched a pilot program to create a developed network of duty free in 2011. They are located in the provincial capital - the city of Haikou, Sanya resort, as well as in the coastal town of Boao in Quenhai district in the northeast of Hainan and in Wenning.
Sales of duty-free stores in Hainan exceeded 60 billion yuan (about $8.5 billion) in 2021, up 84% year on year. This year, the island's authorities expect to bring that figure to 100 billion yuan ($14.2 billion).
