China's popular resort island Hainan is set to relax its limits on offshore duty-free shopping starting Feb. 1, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Wang Huiping, deputy head of the provincial finance department, said on Friday, Jan. 29, that they would implement the new policy to allow non-locals or visitors and tourists to buy duty-free products worth up to 16,000 yuan ($2,442) before they take flights to leave the island, without any restriction on the number of purchases.
According to the report, non-locals are presently allowed to buy duty-free items in Hainan twice a year and each purchase should not cost more than 8,000 yuan.
Wang added that the new policy would also enable the island's two duty-free shops to establish online services so travelers can order online and pick up the products at the airport.
The report said that one of the shops is located in Haikou, the island's provincial capital, while the other, the world's largest, is in the resort city of Sanya.
Wang said the new measure is more flexible than the previous version, which is expected to help duty-free sales and tourism in Hainan.
In April 2011, the State Council, China's cabinet, gave Hainan permission to run a trial duty-free program as part of a wider effort to develop the island as a world-class tourist destination by 2020 and to entice luxury shoppers to return to the place.
The local government only began developing Hainan's tourism industry 15 years ago and luxury hotels only started to build when the central government positioned Hainan as the country's "international tourist island."
On May 29, 2009, 10 five-star hotels and resorts opened at the same time along Sanya's Haitang Bay.
A BBC report said that many of the 25 million tourists who visit Hainan each year come for the health benefits, fleeing the cold snows of northern China and Russia for the warmth of Hainan's climate. Other tourists come to escape pollution from the cities.