Hainan to raise duty-free ceiling to boost spending

Tourists select cosmetics at Sanya Haitang Bay International Shopping Mall. [Photo by Huang Yiming / China Daily]

HAIKOU - Southernmost province Hainan will raise the upper limit of offshore shopping eligible for duty exemption, its party chief said Monday, the latest move to boost spending on the resort island.

Hainan allows non-locals to make duty-free purchases twice a year before taking flights to leave the island, each capped at 8,000 yuan ($1,235). That amount is expected to double, said Luo Baoming, secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The island province will also promote online duty-free shopping while allowing those who leave the island by train to enjoy duty exemption, Luo said.

The State Council, China's cabinet, gave Hainan permission to run a trial duty-free program in April 2011 in an effort to make the island a world-class tourist destination and to lure back luxury shoppers in order to buoy domestic consumption.

Hainan has two duty-free shops, with one in the provincial capital of Haikou and the other, the world's largest such shop, in the resort city of Sanya.