The government of South China's Hainan Province will strive to increase the annual tax-free shopping quota for travelers through efforts like opening more duty-free shops, a policy that an expert said will boost consumption in the local market and help the province become a global tourism and shopping center.
The local finance department last week received documents concerning support for Hainan to pursue further reform and opening-up.
The Hainan finance department will study the opening of more duty-free tax shops to raise the annual shopping quota for visitors, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
An expert said local authorities are likely to enhance the quota step by step. At this point, it is set to rise to about 30,000 yuan ($4,329.88) per person annually compared with 16,000 yuan, according to the report.
Hainan's duty-free shopping policy was implemented on April 20, 2011. The number of duty-free products sold in two tax-free shops in Sanya and Haikou in the province reached about 48 million, worth a total of 37.59 billion yuan from April 20, 2011 to April 19, 2018, according to local customs.
During this year's week-long National Day holidays, which began on October 1, the two shops received about 160,300 visitors and generated 240 million yuan in revenue, up 4.4 percent and 16.8 percent year-on-year, respectively.
An industry insider surnamed Yan told the Global Times Monday higher duty-free shopping quotas will promote the return of foreign consumption in the province and drive Hainan's tax-free sales.
Hainan will gear up to develop its services sector such as tourism, aiming to build a global travel and consumption center, he said.
