(Hainan, 26th) "From December 18th to 24th, during the first week of the Hainan Free Trade Port's customs closure, Sanya's offshore duty-free sales totaled 736 million yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 48.2%. The cumulative number of visitors reached 635,000." Zheng Conghui, Director of the Sanya Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said in an interview on the 25th that in the first week after the customs closure, both sales and visitor numbers in Sanya's offshore duty-free market saw marked growth, fully unleashing the market vitality and consumption potential brought by the Free Trade Port closure.
According to a China News Service report, many duty-free shops in Sanya launched various promotional activities to attract tourists. On the same day, the reporter saw at the cdf Sanya International Duty-Free Shopping Complex that vehicles were coming and going in front of the entrance, and inside the store, consumers lined up to buy duty-free products. Wei Na, a tourist from Shaanxi, picked out a handbag at the Haitang Bay Duty-Free Complex: "With various discounts combined, I saved about 1,000 yuan compared to the usual purchasing channels. It's really worth it."
Sanya’s tourism hotel industry is also exhibiting a high level of operations. "Since the 18th of this month, our hotel's average occupancy rate has exceeded 90%. Judging from our hotel’s booking situation, this hot trend will continue until after New Year's Day," said Wang Wen, Public Relations Manager at Sanya Atlantis. In addition to the main customer group of family with children, there has also been a very significant increase recently in business travelers and overseas guests.
Liu Kaiqiang, President of the Sanya Tourism Hotel Industry Association, stated that the customs closure of the Hainan Free Trade Port has brought benefits to Sanya's hotel, catering, shopping, and other sectors. It can be expected that Sanya’s tourism and hotel industry will achieve good business performance over the coming period.
"The customs closure of the Free Trade Port, government-issued consumption vouchers, large-scale cultural and tourism events, and year-end promotions by businesses are among the multiple factors heating up Sanya’s tourism and consumption market recently," said Zheng Conghui. He noted that it is currently Sanya’s peak tourism season, and with the support of this long-tail effect, the booming tourism consumption market is expected to last until after the Spring Festival.
With New Year's Day and Spring Festival holidays approaching, data from multiple online travel platforms show that Sanya has ranked among the top five most popular tourist cities in China. During the New Year's Day and Spring Festival holidays, Sanya will be holding more than 70 large-scale events, and will continue to issue all-category consumption vouchers for duty-free shops, supermarkets, catering and other key fields, further boosting the ongoing popularity of tourism consumption.