Hainan expected to be a world-class tourism destination by 2020
"The 2014 WTTC Global Summit will be held in Hainan, the only tropical island in China, which is expected to be a world-class tourism destination by 2020”, said David Scowsill, President & CEO of World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) at a press conference held in Beijing on October 25th, 2013.
Since the State Council upgraded the construction of Hainan International Tourism Island to a national strategy at the end of 2009, Hainan has made great achievements in promoting the development of the internationalization of the tourism industry, and developed a large number of new tourism formats including yacht & cruise tourism, surfing & fishing tourism, and duty-free shopping tourism.
According to statistics, Hainan received a total of 172 inbound and outbound cruises and 260,000 passengers in 2012, an increase of 89% and 85% respectively, compared with the previous year, ranking first in China. Hainan has seen about 160 inbound and outbound cruises in 2013 so far.
In addition, a total of 3.15 million duty-free goods were sold from Sanya Duty-Free Shop and Haikou Duty-Free Shop at Meilan International Airport in the first three quarters of this year, with the sales amounting to 2.35 billion yuan in revenue, up 29% in goods and 46% in sales over the same period last year, according to reports.