CHINA. Duty free stores in Sanya remain closed into a third week as new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in and around the southern city remain worryingly high.
The CNSC and HTDF stores in Sanya City shut on 4 August and the vast China Duty Free Group (CDF Mall/Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex) a day later. They have remained shuttered since though online business continues.
As reported, stores in Haikou reopened on Friday 19 August after their latest closure due to the COVID-19 outbreak on the island. They are operated by China Duty Free Group and GDF Plaza, both in Mova Mall, and Times DF (Shenzhen Duty-Free Group/DFS Group) in Mission Hills.
They had closed on 17 August just a day after reopening. This continued a stop-start pattern that had seen the capital city’s retailers forced to first shut their offline operations on 8 August before being allowed to reopen the next day but then close again on 10 August.
“The Haikou stores are still open but business is quite bad due to no travellers,” one Haikou travel retail executive told The Moodie Davitt Report this morning. “Overall cases are still high, but the number of cases per day has dropped in the last few days.”
Retailers across the island – and their brand partners – are now anxiously monitoring the situation in the hope that the crisis will blow over by early September. The Golden Week holidays run from 1 to 7 October with sales traditionally soaring in the last week of September. However with such uncertainly over the COVID situation, many prospective holidaymakers are likely to leave their booking decisions late.
“We are all are praying that this will get over soon. The world needs to go back to normal,” one source told The Moodie Davitt Report.
The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China today reported that there were 440 confirmed locally transmitted new cases in Hainan province yesterday, out of a total 553 indigenous cases across Mainland China.
But that number excludes asymptomatic cases and Sanya remains the epicentre of the crisis. “There are 800 cases for Sanya only, including confirmed ones and no-symptoms [asymptomatic],” a Sanya retail executive told us this morning local time. “So it is still a high-risk situation now.”
New locally transmitted infections in Hainan over recent days (excludes asymptomatic cases)
20 August: 440
19 August: 469
18 August: 441
17 August: 496
16 August: 482
15 August: 426
14 August: 582
Footnote: Every fortnight The Moodie Davitt Report publishes Hainan Curated, in association with Foreo, a selection of all recent stories from the offshore duty free sector in Hainan province. Click here to view all back issues. Please email Kristyn@MoodieDavittReport.com to subscribe free of charge.
New China market launch
In July The Moodie Davitt Report launched 穆迪达维特中国旅游零售报告 – The Moodie Davitt China Travel Retail Report, a digital magazine dedicated to our industry’s hottest market.
The new digital title is published in Mandarin and English four times a year across multiple platforms.
This exciting new digital magazine from the world’s leading travel retail publisher focuses on all aspects of China’s travel-related ecosystem, including:
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