Hainan wants bigger share of tourism pie

More than 500 exhibitors are seeking business opportunities at the Hainan International Tourism Trade Expo, which is one of the many measures that the island province has taken to transform itself into an international destination. [Photo by Yang Feiyue/China Daily]

Liu Jiping is selling bottled air from Hainan. And sales are brisk. He had just signed a deal for 100 bottles when I met him on the second day of the Hainan International Tourism Trade Expo in Sanya, which ran over Jan 12-15.

"Many big cities (in the mainland) suffer due to smog, so our product is popular," Liu, the company's marketing director says.

Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing are major markets for his products.

Liu's company began to sell air just four months ago. The air is from a national forest park in Hainan's Bawangling, in the Changjiang Li autonomous county, where the forest cover is around to 98 percent.

Approximately 500,000 bottles of air have been sold so far, according to Liu.

Each bottle can be used for 20 minutes and costs 79 yuan ($11.5), but was priced at 39 yuan at the expo.

Liu's company is just one of more than 500 exhibitors from more than 20 countries and regions worldwide, which are seeking business opportunities at the Hainan expo. Deals worth 98 billion yuan were signed at the event, and on-the-spot sales exceeded 200 million yuan.

Last March, the expo saw 330 business visitors, and deals worth 400 million yuan were struck.

Fresh air, sunny weather, attractive beaches and a laid-back pace of life attracts visitors to Hainan, especially at this time of the year, when the chill and the smog hold many domestic cities hostage.

In fact, Sanya in Hainan is the most popular destination in China among those who used the country's biggest online travel agency Ctrip as winter set in. And most of those from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen who made air travel bookings on the site generally did so 30 days ahead of time.

Sanya saw more than 16 million visitors spend at least a night last year, according to the local government.