China Duty Free Group opened its 72,000sq m Sanya duty free store in Hainan yesterday which is the world’s largest duty free shop.

 

As reported in detail already, the huge shopping mall (artist’s impression right) is operated by the China Duty Free Group and yesterday’s opening is the first of a three-phase CNY.5bn ($814m) investment by parent company China International Travel Service.

 

CDFG has great expectations for its new store and the opening has received very positive press coverage in China, not the least from Xinhuanet [see story on the country’s central government news website here: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2014-09/02/c_133612638.htm].

The Chinese retailer already enjoyed a peak daily shopper count of some 10,000 visitors a day in its original downtown Sanya store, and until the end of 2013 the store had generated total sales of CNY.5.85bn ($953m). This new store is expected to perform on a completely different scale.

 

As previously reported, CDFG began operating its Sanya Downtown Duty Free Store in 2011 and this was the first off island duty free store in China aimed at domestic and foreign tourists.

 

[For more information on this and the previous operational performance by CDFG, click here.]