China Duty Free Group Vice President Zhao Feng said today that she believes there is scope to apply the ‘model’ lessons from its huge downtown Haitang Bay complex to new store openings in future, although she ruled out any duplicated operations in China itself.

Answering a question from China’s Century Conference Moderator John Rimmer at today’s major event in Shanghai, she reminded the audience that CDFG trades at Haitang Bay on Hainan Island thanks to a specific policy decree that cannot be duplicated in any other location in China.

China Duty Free Group Vice President Zhao Feng.

SPECIAL PROVISIONS

She also likened the special provisions for spending in Haitang to those offered by other countries such as South Korea and Japan, where special downtown store provisions and allowances have been created to stimulate tourism with incremental downtown duty free shopping.

Zhao Feng said that CDFG has now accumulated a lot of experience and while the benefits of the Haitang Bay policy cannot be replicated in China, CDFG can certainly borrow some aspects of the model and customise them in other locations.

Interestingly she said CDFG is already benefiting from its first overseas downtown store experience in Cambodia Siem Reap and its contacts with passengers through travel agents. This will grow when it opens its second outlet in the country in Phnom Penh, she says.