General

"At present, the passenger flow of the major duty-free stores in Hainan is gradually increasing. From the airport perspective, there is basically a plane landing every 5 to 10 minutes." A Hainan duty-free goods agent said.

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said, "With the optimization of the epidemic prevention and control policies, Hainan's passenger flow will increase significantly, which is good for local duty-free consumption. However, the recovery of the industrial chain and supply chain, as well as the release of related consumer demand, will take some time, and it is estimated that it will take at least one to two quarters to recover to the pre epidemic level."

Multiple measures to benefit Hainan's consumption

After the relaxation of restrictions on cross provincial mobility, the popularity of popular tourist cities such as Sanya and Haikou has rebounded significantly. The number of passenger flights executed by local airports and the number of inbound and outbound passengers increased to varying degrees.

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, since December 6, the number of domestic passenger flights in the main airports of Haikou Meilan International Airport and Sanya Phoenix International Airport has continued to increase. On December 8, Haikou Meilan International Airport carried out 235 flights, an increase of 19.3% month on month; Sanya Phoenix International Airport carried out 161 flights, up 21.1% month on month.

On the same day, 121 inbound flights took place at Haikou Meilan International Airport, with 16318 passengers; 118 outbound sorties, 7489 passengers. Compared with December 7, there was a different increase.

Many local brand hotels in Sanya said that at present, passengers who check in no longer need to check nucleic acid, but can check in with the health code green code. "After the optimization of the epidemic prevention and control measures, the recent room bookings have increased significantly, and the number of guests in the hotel has also changed significantly." The receptionist of a national chain hotel said.

The above purchasing agent said, "Recently, the prices of air tickets and hotels have also started to rise. It is expected that this wave of passenger flow growth will continue until the end of March and the beginning of April next year, when the passenger flow will decline, the prices of accommodation and catering will fall."

In addition, Hainan has also promoted the recovery of duty-free consumers through "shopping festivals", consumption vouchers, free air tickets and other forms of duty-free goods. According to the observation report of Huacheng import and export data, Yao Lei, the first level inspector of the Department of Commerce of Hainan Province, introduced at the press conference on tax exemption and consumption promotion in Hainan's outlying islands on December 7 that in order to meet consumer demand, Hainan launched the "member purchase", a good friend of tax exemption in the outlying islands, and can also buy duty-free goods without the need for outlying air tickets.

In fact, duty-free shopping in Hainan outlying islands is an important driving force for the growth of tourism consumption in Hainan. According to the statistics of Hainan Provincial Department of Commerce, in 2021, the sales of 10 offshore duty-free stores in Hainan will reach 60.173 billion yuan, an increase of 84% year on year. Among them, the duty-free sales amount was 50.49 billion yuan, up 83% year on year. In addition, the number of duty-free shoppers and duty-free purchases also increased year on year. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The performance of tax-free enterprises is expected to recover

Since the release of favorable tax exemption policies, all market entities in Hainan Province have participated actively. According to Tianyan data, since this year, there have been 2777 newly registered market entities including tax-free business in Hainan Province, and 84 newly registered market entities since December.

In the secondary market, since November, the A-share tax-free concept plate has risen as a whole. As of December 9, the closing price of China Central Exemption Insurance rose 12.75% month on month, Spring Airlines rose 7.96% month on month, Hainan Development rose 6.67% month on month, Gree Real Estate rose 9.98% month on month, etc.

Under the expectation of consumption recovery, the performance trend of tax-free listed companies also attracted the attention of the capital market. Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iMedia Consulting, told reporters that, "With the relaxation of restrictions on personnel mobility, duty-free consumption is expected to pick up significantly. This will significantly boost the operating performance of relevant duty-free enterprises, especially the leading enterprises. The leading enterprises have a wide range of involvement, many brands and product categories, and strong service capabilities in the layout of the whole duty-free industry. This wave of duty-free consumption should be reflected in the performance of the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year."

Zhang Yi said that for the duty-free industry, online business is more complementary, and the main channel is offline. During the epidemic, the leading enterprises put a lot of energy into online channels, and found out many useful attempts and experiences. In the future, duty-free enterprises will focus on offline, supplemented by online, and "two hands" as the direction of efforts. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.