{"id":29612,"date":"2026-02-22T07:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=29612"},"modified":"2026-02-22T07:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:43:14","slug":"hainan-ftp-sees-tourism-consumption-boom-during-the-first-spring-festival-after-special-customs-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=29612","title":{"rendered":"Hainan FTP sees tourism, consumption boom during the first Spring Festival after special customs operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/d6wL7C5xrafi4wWB.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers shop at a duty-free store during the Spring Festival holiday in Haikou, south China&#8217;s Hainan Province, Feb. 16, 2026. (Xinhua\/Guo Cheng)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the first Spring Festival holiday since the launch of island-wide special customs operations in China&#8217;s Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), the southern tropical island has become a popular destination for tourists, injecting fresh momentum into the tourism and consumption markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the iconic Qilou Old Street in the capital city of Haikou, rows of red lanterns add a festive ambiance. Tourists from home and abroad stroll through the street, immersed in the historical charm and festive joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the first day of the holiday, a Dutch tourist, Strobos, toured the Southeast Asian style buildings there with his Chinese wife, stopping frequently to take photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s warm,&#8221; said Strobos, who was visiting Hainan for the first time. &#8220;The Qilou Old Street is very famous, so we came here. It&#8217;s very beautiful. The buildings and the atmosphere are very impressive.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A street festival market features a wide range of products, from traditional festival snacks to creative cultural handicrafts, drawing large crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Qilou Old Street is full of cultural charm and a strong sense of life,&#8221; said a tourist surnamed Cao from central China&#8217;s Hunan Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cruise tourism also added to the holiday boost. On the first day of the lunar year, the Star Voyager, a cruise ship under Star Cruises, docked at the Sanya Phoenix Island international cruise port with more than 1,800 passengers on board, bringing new vitality to Sanya&#8217;s tourism market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A tourist from Sweden, Fredrik, said he was very happy to enjoy the cruise and the atmosphere of the Chinese Spring Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Haikou General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, Hainan is expected to see a peak in cross-border travel during the nine-day holiday, with the total inbound and outbound tourists projected to reach 79,300, an increase of 24.1 percent year on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duty-free shopping, a key feature of the Hainan FTP, also surged during the holiday, thanks to optimized duty-free policies, an expanded product range, and a combination of government consumption vouchers and store discounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a duty-free store in downtown Haikou, decorations themed on the Year of the Horse added to the festive vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Duty-free shopping is a must for traveling in Hainan,&#8221; said a tourist surnamed Jian from Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. &#8220;Skincare and cosmetic products here are much cheaper than malls back home, which really encourages spending.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was her first duty-free shopping experience in Hainan, and she said the store offered a wider selection of goods in a comfortable shopping environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For many tourists, duty-free shopping has become not only a must-do for their trip in Hainan, but also a bonus for their vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I reserved a whole day just for shopping,&#8221; said He Jun, a tourist from east China&#8217;s Anhui Province, who stayed an extra day in Haikou to visit duty-free stores before returning home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I researched online in advance and secured government consumption vouchers. The prices are really competitive,&#8221; she said, adding that the duty-free shopping made her trip more enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Data from Haikou Customs showed that in the first four days of the Spring Festival holiday, duty-free sales in Hainan reached 1.03 billion yuan (about 149 million U.S. dollars), with duty-free shoppers reaching 137,000. The figures represent year-on-year increases of 20.9 percent and 25.7 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to plans, China aims to build Hainan into a globally influential tourism and consumption destination by 2035.&nbsp;\u25a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/KinHuhUJ7kH0XW9p.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tourists visit the Qilou Old Street during the Spring Festival holiday in Haikou, south China&#8217;s Hainan Province, Feb. 15, 2026. (Xinhua\/Guo Cheng)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/bGd472w0yBohFCzI.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tourists visit the Qilou Old Street during the Spring Festival holiday in Haikou, south China&#8217;s Hainan Province, Feb. 15, 2026. (Xinhua\/Guo Cheng)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/A2O4IbXaa2TE3FxB.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Customers check out at a duty-free store during the Spring Festival holiday in Haikou, south China&#8217;s Hainan Province, Feb. 16, 2026. (Xinhua\/Guo Cheng)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reference Link:- <a href=\"https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/english.news.cn\/20260221\/bf84ae9f935a48aaa97b759972a58efa\/c.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Customers shop at a duty-free store during the Spring Festival holiday in Haikou, south China&#8217;s Hainan Province, Feb. 16, 2026. (Xinhua\/Guo Cheng) During the first Spring Festival holiday since the launch of island-wide special customs operations in China&#8217;s Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), the southern tropical island has become a popular destination for tourists, injecting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[2307,27207,23776,26950,25437,11428,27208],"class_list":["post-29612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-china-3","tag-ftp-2","tag-hainan-2","tag-shopping-2","tag-special-custom-operation","tag-spring-festival-3","tag-tourism-4","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29614,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29612\/revisions\/29614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}