China Tourism Group Contributes to Hainan FTP Construction

The Haikou International Duty Free City project in South China's Hainan Province, the world's largest single duty-free commercial complex, is scheduled to open this year.

China Tourism Group has invested more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.57 billion) in the large-scale duty-free and tourism complex building cluster project that features functions of duty-free and dutiable commercial service, high-end office and hotel space, and talent community .

Once operational, the company will have more than 10,000 employees working in Hainan.

The company has highly valued its business development in the region and made full use of the geological, resource and policy advantage of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).

Giving full play to the duty-free-centered full industrial chain of the Hainan FTP, the company promoted convergence of the culture and tourism industries to realize high-quality tourism development and support construction of the FTP and the international tourism consumption center.

Construction of the Hainan FTP pilot intends to promote building of a free trade port with Chinese characteristics.

The development plan on tourism, broadcasting and television, and sports of Hainan during the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period outlines the goal of building the region into an international consumption center and making tourism a pillar industry of the national economy.

In response to the plans, China Tourism Group and the Hainan government inked an all-round strategic cooperation agreement and moved its headquarters to Haikou in September 2018.

Over the past years, the company kept optimizing its resource supply structure, launched high-quality tourism products, supported upgrading of the supply-side reform and positively participated in the construction of the Hainan FTP, which contributed to the development paradigm of domestic and international cycles boosting each other.

The company launched an online tourism mini program on WeChat, a popular mobile communication application in China, in 2020. The program provided more than one million services in 2021 and has accumulatively gained 20.75 million visits. About 1.68 million tourism coupons have so far been offered to users. The online program has laid a sound foundation for the company to expand its digital operation in Hainan.

China Tourism Corporation also developed new tourist routes in which activities such as surfing, sea fishing and satellite-launch watching are included. Adding the digital platform's contribution, the company had a year-on-year operating revenue growth of 96 percent in the travel business in 2021.

As for retailing, China Duty Free Group, a subsidiary of China Tourism Corporation, the world's largest tourism retailer, has promoted and implemented Hainan's duty-free policies. With its online and offline platforms, the company achieved sales amounting to 32.7 billion yuan in 2020, up by 127 percent year-on-year.

In addition to tourism service and retailing, the company also witnessed growth in the hotel, traffic services and cruise business in 2021.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)