Resort island steps up efforts to build intl consumption center

Duty-free shopping has become a major attraction to tourists across the country since Hainan was granted permission to run a pilot offshore duty-free program in April 2011.

Apart from duty-free shopping, Hainan has become increasingly attractive to tourists at home and abroad with its abundant tourism products and improved services, as it strives to build itself into an international tourism and consumption center.

In 2019, Hainan received more than 83 million tourists, including 1.44 million inbound tourists, up 9 percent and 13.6 percent year on year respectively, according to the provincial tourism authorities.

Hainan boasts 161 five-star hotels, and six national top-level tourist attractions among its 59 A-class tourist sites. It has a high-speed railway that circles the whole island, the world's first of its kind.

"The hotel industry is very developed in Hainan, and we're here for the hotels," said a tourist surnamed Wei from east China's Zhejiang Province, who went on holiday with her two kids in Sanya.

It was Wei's second trip to Hainan. This time she and her family did not visit any scenic spots but stayed in the hotel during the whole trip. "The parent-child facilities are enough for us," Wei said after visiting an aquarium with her kids at the Atlantis, a landmark hotel in the city.

Zhao Jianguo, a 69-year-old Beijinger, spent one week in a high-end medical tourism service institution on the island.