Chinese Customers Spent Millions on Luxury Goods in Hainan

Chinese customers spared their time to shop during the week on their National holiday (from Oct. 1 to 6) that ended this Thursday.

According to state media, even though travel decreased this year, sales at nine duty-free shops in Hainan calculated nearly 1.65 billion yuan. That is equal to $252.4 million. According to the report, that marked an increase of 76% from the same period last year. It is more than four times higher (a 358% jump) than the same period in 2019.

Overview

Chinese customers who used to travel abroad before the Covid pandemic, now Hainan became a popular destination for them to buy luxury goods.

The country still considered the pandemic and took measures during China’s Golden Week (National holiday) this year. It has traditionally been a popular time to travel for Chinese people. It is one of two significant holidays in China where workers have several personal holiday leave days.

However, Beijing’s new policy about zero-tolerance for controlling the current pandemic means that robust lockdown measures can restrict travel. For example, as they did for tourists in Xinjiang this week. Also, in Beijing, some schools did not allow teachers and students to leave the city for a holiday.

According to China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Tourism spending of 389.2 billion yuan between 1 – 7 October was only around 60% of the profit in 2019. According to the Chinese travel booking site, Trip.com, Beijing is marked as the most popular destination. It exceeded Shanghai after opening Universal Studios resort on the outskirts of Beijing.

According to Trip.com, this year, during the holiday, Nationwide bookings for car rentals increased by 44% compared to the same holiday in 2019. The report also said that the average airplane ticket (one-way) price increased by 7% from a year ago, now 822 yuan.