As one of the core policies for the construction of Hainan free trade port, the new tax exemption policy for Hainan outlying islands has been implemented for two years. Against the background that global tourism consumption as a whole has been hit hard by the epidemic, the new tax-free policy has promoted the substantial growth of tax-free consumption in Hainan in the past two years, which has greatly attracted the return of overseas consumption. Can Hainan become the largest duty-free market in the world? Is the potential of the new tax exemption policy in Hainan fully released? How should Hainan improve the international competitiveness of duty-free shopping in the next step? Tax free shopping is popular, and the consumption return is obvious The first Hainan International off Island duty-free shopping festival was officially launched in Sanya international duty free city at the end of June, and the activities will continue until December. This shopping festival will combine more than 700 brands in 45 duty-free categories to bring wonderful activities, including new product launch, first store entry, duty-free exclusive courtesy and so on, to further attract overseas consumption. The reporter recently saw in Sanya International duty-free city that tourists are bustling, tourists queue up in front of some international major stores, and consumers who pay in front of some cosmetics counters also queue up. Chen Yingying, a tourist from Guangdong, and his friends came to Hainan for a tour and specially arranged a half day to go to the duty-free city for "shopping". "Duty free shopping is quite attractive, with international brands and cost-effective prices," said Chen Yingying. She not only hoarded a lot of skin care products and cosmetics for herself, but also brought some gifts for her family and friends. Sichuan Tourist Tang Xiu bought a bag with a price of more than 10000 yuan and a pair of sunglasses with a price of more than 3000 yuan, and is also preparing to buy some skin care products. Comparing the experience of duty-free shopping in Hainan for several years, she said: "the quota of 30000 yuan is certainly not enough, and the current quota is more affordable for consumers." From July 1st, 2020, the duty-free shopping quota of Hainan outlying islands will be increased from 30000 yuan to 100000 yuan per person per year, the tax-free quota of 8000 yuan per piece of goods will be cancelled, the types of goods limited by the number of single purchases will be significantly reduced, and seven categories of goods favored by consumers such as mobile phones and tablet computers will be added, which is also the strongest adjustment of the duty-free policy of Hainan Outlying Islands since its implementation in 2011. Under the background that the global tourism consumption industry as a whole has been severely hit by the epidemic, thanks to the effectiveness of domestic epidemic prevention and control and the positive stimulus of the new tax-free policy for Hainan Islands, the tax-free shopping consumption in Hainan Islands has increased sharply against the trend, and it is more obvious to attract the return of overseas consumption. According to the statistics of Haikou customs, since the adjustment of the duty-free policy of Hainan outlying islands on July 1, 2020, as of the end of June this year, Haikou customs has supervised the sales amount of duty-free goods on the outlying islands of 90.6 billion yuan, the number of sales of 125 million pieces, 12.28 million shopping passengers, and the average daily shopping amount of 124 million yuan, an increase of 257% compared with before the implementation of the new deal. Liu Feng, director of the research center of free trade port with Chinese characteristics of Hainan Normal University, said that as a unique major favorable policy given by the state to the construction of Hainan free trade port, the new tax exemption policy for Hainan outlying islands not only effectively stimulates domestic demand and promotes the return of overseas consumption, but also promotes the upgrading of Hainan tourism and modern service industry, and plays an indispensable role in accelerating the construction of Hainan international tourism consumption center. Hainan is expected to build the world's largest duty-free market Affected by the epidemic, since 2020, Chinese consumers have shifted from "overseas purchase" to "Hainan purchase", and Hainan has become an alternative to traditional shopping destinations such as Hong Kong and South Korea. At present, there are 10 off Island duty-free stores in Hainan, which are operated by 5 market entities. Wang Xuan, deputy general manager of China Free Travel Group Co., Ltd., said that this year, the expansion of Sanya International duty-free city and Sanya Phoenix Airport duty-free store will be promoted to attract more brands; Accelerate the upgrading and transformation of duty-free stores at Meilan Airport in Haikou to achieve high-quality shopping and consumption experience; We will spare no efforts to ensure the opening of the Haikou international duty free city project, which will become the largest single duty-free store in the world after its completion. "Hainan's tax-free entities will compete for the high-end consumer market internationally in the future," said Jiang xiongbiao, member of the Party committee and deputy general manager of Hainan holdings. The domestic market is large enough and the domestic consumption capacity is strong enough. We hope to work with other tax-free market entities to expand the tax-free consumer market and attract more overseas consumption. According to the "14th five year plan" of Hainan Province to build an international tourism consumption center, Hainan will enhance the international competitiveness of duty-free shopping this year and strive for the sales of duty-free stores on outlying islands to reach 100billion yuan. By 2025, the trade of duty-free goods on outlying islands will be doubled. Chi Fulin, President of China (Hainan) reform and Development Research Institute, believes that if the policy remains unchanged or is further opened, it is expected that by 2025, the scale of duty-free shopping market in Hainan's outlying islands will have the conditions to exceed 160billion yuan, surpassing the scale of South Korea in 2019, and may become the world's largest duty-free shopping market in outlying islands. "No matter from the reality, or from the international and domestic situation and development trend, there is demand and conditions to build Hainan into the world's largest duty-free shopping market." Chi Fulin said that the duty-free shopping market in Hainan should face 1.4 billion people in China, especially middle-income groups; It should also be international oriented and become the largest duty-free shopping island in the region and the world. Industry insiders believe that the potential of duty-free shopping policy on outlying islands has not yet been fully released. Data show that in 2019, Chinese people consumed 40% of the world's duty-free goods, of which the overall scale of overseas purchases of duty-free goods exceeded 180billion yuan. In 2021, the total sales volume of duty-free stores in Hainan was about 60billion yuan, equivalent to 1/3 of the total overseas duty-free shopping consumption of Chinese consumers in 2019. Liu Feng said that in terms of per capita consumption, the development potential of duty-free shopping in Hainan is still great. In 2021, the tax-free per capita sales of Hainan outlying islands was about 7000 yuan, which was significantly different from that of duty-free stores in Japan and South Korea. Liu Feng said that after the epidemic, Hainan will face direct competition with Europe and the United States, Japan and South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, China and other internationally renowned "shopping paradise". Can Hainan take advantage of the current "window period" to continue to enhance the overall competitiveness and reputation of tourism shopping, continuously improve consumer shopping experience, cultivate tourist consumption stickiness, promote the return of secondary and tertiary consumption, and ensure that tourists to Hainan shopping and consumption "is not easy after the epidemic", It has become a major issue facing Hainan. Expand tax-free opening up and enhance international competitiveness Experts believe that in order to build Hainan into the world's largest duty-free market in the future, we need to further relax policies, expand the openness of Hainan's duty-free market, enhance the international competitiveness of duty-free shopping in Hainan, and improve the related industrial chain of duty-free shopping. Chi Fulin believes that more competent and qualified enterprises should be allowed to enter the duty-free market in Hainan, improve the supply and service quality of duty-free shopping in Hainan in fair competition, especially introduce international duty-free shopping business entities, further optimize the types of duty-free goods on outlying islands, improve the service level of duty-free shopping, expand the supply chain of duty-free goods, and enhance the global competitiveness of the duty-free shopping market in Hainan. Chi Fulin said that whether Hainan can become a first-class international and regional tourism consumption center as soon as possible after the end of the epidemic depends largely on the competitiveness of Hainan's duty-free shopping market, and the key is to establish a high-level duty-free shopping management system and service system in line with international standards. First, establish the system guarantee system of duty-free shopping, including the quality management system of duty-free shopping, local regulations focusing on consumer protection and the basic system of service quality management in the field of duty-free shopping; Secondly, we should speed up the construction of the service system of duty-free shopping and work hard on rules, regulations, management and standards to form a complete set of duty-free shopping service system; Third, work together with Hong Kong to build Hainan's duty-free shopping market, jointly establish the industrial chain, supply chain and service chain of duty-free shopping, and gradually build Hainan into the world's largest duty-free shopping center by using the domestic market. Liu Feng said that we should speed up the improvement of the industrial chain construction and supporting services related to duty-free shopping, take the lead in building Hainan into an "exchange" and "reaction furnace" of high-quality duty-free goods and resources with the help of high-level platforms such as the free trade port policy dividend and the China International Consumer goods Expo, and actively attract European investment and flow increase while vigorously promoting the return of overseas consumption, such as guiding France Italy and other European luxury industry chain related enterprises have settled in the free trade port to explore innovative models such as "front store and back warehouse" and "front store and back factory" for duty-free goods sales in Hainan. Cuijian, member of the party leading group and deputy director general of the Department of Commerce of Hainan Province, said that in the next step, Hainan will take a series of measures to improve the international competitiveness of duty-free shopping on outlying islands: first, improve the carrying capacity of duty-free shopping market, further optimize the layout planning of duty-free stores, speed up the introduction of high-end best-selling goods and domestic high-quality goods, national fashion brands, improve the richness of goods, and meet the shopping needs of Chinese people; Second, create a first-class duty-free shopping environment, strengthen the construction of hardware facilities of duty-free stores, strengthen the training and introduction of service and management talents, and comprehensively improve the management service level of sales, delivery, after-sales and other industries; Third, strengthen the service capacity of the industry, establish the Hainan tax exemption Association, strengthen the horizontal cooperation between the main bodies, promote the "three synchronization" of tax-free shopping and the international market, and promote the healthy development of the tax-free industry. (Xinhua News Agency)