Haikou Meilan Airport Duty Free Shop is studying the possible impact of the imminent individual allowance increase for travellers to China’s Hainan province. This will nearly double from RMB16,000 ($2,432) to *RMB30,000 ($4,314), effective 1 December.

The policy relaxes the annual ceiling per person, per day for outlying passengers, including residents to the island, according to a circular from the Ministry of Finance, General Administration of Customs and the State Administration of Taxation seen by TRBusiness via the state-run Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission.

A Haikou Meilan Airport Duty Free Shop spokesman told TRBusiness: “According to the newest policy, it is really great that the duty free allowance will be increased to RMB30,000 from 1 December.

“Until today our company is still internally studying its potential impact.

The introduction of the ‘more open and convenient tax free shopping policy’ confirms signs of a further liberalisation of the island’s duty and tax free policies.

REFORMS CONTINUE…

This follows in line with a number of travel and tourism reforms linked to the burgeoning China-backed Hainan Free Trade Zone and Port Pilot.

As TRBusiness reliably understands, the Government is expected to unveil further details of two new offshore duty free shopping facilities in Haikou and Qionghai in a bid to stimulate sales from domestic Chinese and foreign visitors.

The lifting of the allowance limit will certainly be greeted favourably by incumbent duty free players, including China Duty Free Group (CDFG), which declined to comment when contacted by TRBusiness.

CDFG operates at the sprawling Haitang Bay Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex and now has a co-operation with Hainan Duty Free Haikou Meilan Airport Duty Free at Haikou Meilan International Airport, linked to HNA Group.

The island’s special duty free programme has achieved notable success since its introduction in 2011, with the special duty free allowance doubling to RMB16,000 in 2016

Hainan’s inbound tourism surged by 50% to 1.1m in 2017.

*Based on actual currency rates according to XE.com