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Hainan's First National Day Since Island-Wide Customs Closure: Duty-Free Sales Top 100 Million Yuan on Day One, Up More Than 20%
Reporter 欧亚时报编辑部
According to customs data from Haikou Customs, on the first day of China's 2026 National Day holiday (October 1), offshore duty-free shopping sales in Hainan reached 107 million yuan, with 18,900 shopping trips recorded that day and 83,000 items purchased in total. Sales value, number of shoppers and number of items all rose year-on-year, by 21.17 percent, 13.81 percent and 11.24 percent respectively. This was Hainan's first National Day "Golden Week" holiday since the Hainan Free Trade Port officially began island-wide customs closure operations on December 18, 2025, making the first-day figures a closely watched window into the real-world pull of the offshore duty-free policy under the new customs arrangement.
Extending the observation window to the first three days of the holiday (October 1-3), however, the growth momentum cooled. Haikou Customs figures show cumulative offshore duty-free sales over the three days at about 358 million yuan, with roughly 55,100 shopping trips and 277,000 items purchased; sales, shopper numbers and item counts grew year-on-year by just 8.85 percent, 12.90 percent and 8.02 percent respectively. In other words, the more than 20-percent surge on day one narrowed over the following two days, pulling the three-day cumulative growth rate down into single digits. The divergence suggests that a strong opening-day pop does not necessarily track consistently with spending momentum across the whole holiday, and that the offshore duty-free market's actual performance still depends on multiple factors, including the pace of tourist arrivals and shoppers' purchasing decision cycles.
This holiday's consumption figures arrive at a new starting point, as the Hainan Free Trade Port moved from partial to full island-wide customs closure. On December 18, 2025, Hainan formally launched island-wide customs closure operations, built on the core design of "opening the first line, controlling the second line, and free circulation within the island": more open and convenient arrangements govern the "first line" between Hainan and territories outside China's customs border, precise management governs the "second line" between Hainan and mainland China, while goods, capital and other factors can circulate relatively freely within the island itself. Related policy documents specify that after the customs closure, the share of imported goods exempt from import duties, value-added tax and consumption tax would rise sharply from about 21 percent to 74 percent of tariff lines, with the range of covered product categories expanding from about 1,900 to about 6,600 — a change officials have described as a new milestone in China's high-level opening-up.
As for the offshore duty-free shopping policy itself, Chinese consumers purchasing duty-free goods in Hainan currently receive an annual tax-free shopping allowance of 100,000 yuan per person per calendar year, tracked electronically against an ID card or passport number, with no limit on the number of transactions until the allowance is used up. Eligible product categories now span 47 broad groups, covering cosmetics, bags, watches, mobile phones, computers, apparel and even alcoholic beverages; aside from a handful of categories with quantity caps — cosmetics (30 pieces), mini drones (2 units), mobile phones (4 per visit) and alcohol (1,500ml) — most categories carry no purchase-quantity limit within the 100,000-yuan allowance. That allowance, raised from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan in 2020, has been one of the core policy levers driving the expansion of Hainan's offshore duty-free market, with major operators such as China Duty Free Group (CDFG) continuing to expand their store networks and product offerings on the island.
Looking at holiday consumption performance across this year, Hainan's offshore duty-free market has shown fairly unstable growth, swinging between highs and lows. During this year's three-day New Year holiday, for instance, duty-free sales once surged 128.9 percent year-on-year; growth eased to around 14.8 percent over the Tomb-Sweeping holiday; and by National Day, first-day growth climbed back above 20 percent before the three-day cumulative rate fell back into single digits. Several industry observers say this volatility is partly a direct function of varying year-earlier comparison bases, and partly reflects the fact that, even with multiple favourable factors stacking up — island-wide customs closure, an expanded tax-free allowance and broader product categories — Hainan's offshore duty-free consumption market has not yet hit a ceiling, and remains at a stage where policy dividends are still being gradually released and consumer habits are still forming.
On the ground in Hainan, Sanya International Duty Free City at Haitang Bay was packed with shoppers throughout this National Day holiday. This year marks the complex's 12th anniversary, and operator China Duty Free Group (CDFG), part of China Tourism Group, rolled out promotions such as gift-with-purchase offers and 10-times loyalty points, alongside themed parades and drone light shows to draw crowds. Several outlets noted that Hainan's offshore duty-free shopping is shifting from a "check-in and sweep the shelves" style of visit toward more experience- and engagement-driven consumption — a trend seen as helping extend visitors' stays and raise per-capita spending, in turn lifting broader cultural-tourism activity across the province. Meanwhile, coastal attractions such as Sanya's Xidao (West Island) and Dadonghai also drew large crowds over the holiday, reflecting continued strong demand for island tourism.
This round of growth in Hainan's offshore duty-free shopping came against the backdrop of this year's combined Mid-Autumn and National Day "mega-holiday." With the two festivals falling just three working days apart, a "take 3, get 13" leave pattern produced the longest continuous travel window of the year; official estimates put nationwide trips over the combined holiday at around 2.78 billion, with roughly 300 million trips a day during the seven-day National Day stretch alone. Industry estimates suggested nationwide domestic trips over the combined holiday would rise about 4 to 6 percent year-on-year, while tourism revenue would grow a slightly smaller 3 to 5 percent — a structural feature of the current "holiday economy," in which visitor numbers are climbing faster than average per-person spending. Against that backdrop, Hainan's offshore duty-free sales bucked the trend with double-digit growth, topping 20 percent on National Day's opening day, making it one of the few sub-sectors whose growth clearly outpaced the broader holiday economy this year — underscoring the policy's role as a key lever in China's push to expand domestic demand and upgrade consumption.
From a broader perspective, Hainan's offshore duty-free shopping has for several years been viewed by Chinese authorities as an important engine for driving "holiday economy" growth and domestic consumption. The scheme began as a pilot in 2011 and has since been expanded multiple times, aiming to keep spending on luxury and mid-to-high-end goods — previously flowing heavily overseas — inside the country, while using the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port to turn the province into one of China's most open regions to the outside world. Industry observers broadly expect that as the effects of island-wide customs closure continue to unfold, combined with the fourth quarter's traditionally peak consumption season, major operators such as China Duty Free Group are highly likely to see second-half revenue outpace the first half. Still, this National Day holiday's pattern of a strong opening followed by steadier growth is also a reminder that sustained growth in offshore duty-free shopping will continue to depend on a richer supply of goods, a more attractive pricing structure, and parallel improvements in Hainan's overall tourism-reception capacity.
