China's economy takes off running in 2023 (3)

Customers pick up commodities at Haikou International Duty Free City in Haikou, Hainan province, on Oct 28, 2022. ZHANG MAO/FOR CHINA DAILY

Hainan province

South China's island province of Hainan has launched plenty of promotional activities, further stimulating the vitality of duty-free consumption.

Statistics from Haikou Customs showed that it has supervised a total of 5.19 billion yuan in duty-free sales, from a total of 534,000 consumers when they left the island from Jan 1 to 28.

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, Hainan reported a total of 1.56 billion yuan ($234 million) in offshore duty-free sales, a year-on-year increase of 5.88 percent.

The province also received nearly 6.4 million tourists during the seven-day holiday, up 18.2 percent year-on-year, and raked in nearly 9.3 billion yuan in tourism revenue, according to the provincial tourism authority.

Hainan will focus on boosting consumer demand and strive to drive up the island's number of tourists and tourism revenue this year. It expects to see its offshore duty-free sales exceed 80 billion yuan in 2023, said Feng Fei, governor of Hainan, when delivering a government work report in early January.