At a special Chinese Duty Free Business conference held in Beijing yesterday, the China Duty Free Group (CDFG) reported that its total duty free sales reached $330m on 2004 and it is expecting sales of

$380m by the end of 2005.
According to official news agencies, CDFG officials said that the company now supplies eight types of stores over 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. At the same meeting, China International Travel Service (CITS) Group President Zhang Jianhua told delegates that the recent Tax Free World Exhibition in Cannes was evidence that the industry considered China to be a potential ‘goldmine’ in future.
Zhang said that there was still much room for improved tourism revenues, considering that only 20% of China's foreign exchange revenues from tourism currently come from shopping, compared with a world average of 30%.
CDFG General Manager Li Gang also made poignant reference to to the 2008 Beijing Olympics where CDFG has already been awarded the official Beijing Organizing Committee license for Olympic products. He said that CDFG holds the exclusive license to sell Olympic products in China's airports, ports and other areas and he estimated that this is a business which could generate sales of around CY.2bn ($247m) between now and 2008.