Dufry and Hainan Development Holdings opened their first downtown duty-free shop called Global Duty Free Plaza on January 31, 2020 at the Mova Mall in the city-center of Hainan’s capital Haikou in China.
Dufry said that the opening is right on time for the Chinese Spring festival, which is an important travel, holiday and shopping period.
The new downtown duty-free shop called GDF Plaza, Global Duty Free Plaza offers customers an attractive selection of internationally renowned brands and local premium labels covering all core categories such as perfume & cosmetics, food and confectionery, wine & spirits and sunglasses.
Customers can also enjoy the online reserve and collect service, allowing them to preorder their favorite products.
The opening announced is the first phase of the operationalization of the Mova Mall complex, with further openings planned in Q3 2021 and in the first quarter 2022.
The full complex will span over two buildings, Aquarius and Capricorn, of the Mova Mall and offers visitors an extraordinary shopping experience across 38,920 m2 of retail space once fully completed.
For the second and third opening phases, an additional range of top luxury and lifestyle brands has been engaged allowing to further extend the product offer to reach over 350 brands.
Mova Mall is a major tourism and shopping destination in Haikou’s city center, featuring a vast leisure offer of shopping, dining and entertainment facilities, as well as over 2,500 luxury hotel rooms in walking distance. The Mova Mall complex welcomed 22 million visitors in 2019, and visitors from mainland China can buy duty-free items up to an amount of 100.000 RMB (approx. USD 14,000) per year
The opening of the new Mova Mall duty-free shop represents Dufry’s first involvement in a duty-free operation in mainland China and is an important entry point in the attractive Hainan market. It is the first one opened in the context of the strategic cooperation agreement signed earlier this year between Dufry and Hainan Development Holdings to develop opportunities in Hainan’s travel retail market. In addition to the supply of global brands, Dufry will share its global experience in travel retail with HDH.
Julian Diaz, Dufry Group CEO, commented: “We are proud to see the first shop of our collaboration with Hainan Development Holdings now welcoming customers, who enjoy shopping in this attractive environment offering unique experiences. The combination of Hainan Development Holding’s in-depth understanding of the local market with Dufry’s global duty-free expertise, customer behavior insights and access to all the renowned global brands creates a unique combination of skills contributing to the successful development of this promising business. We are looking forward to continue our collaboration with HDH and identify further duty-free opportunities in the fast-growing Hainan market.”
The partnership with Hainan Development Holdings is in line with Dufry’s growth strategy in Asia and builds on the company’s existing and long-standing footprint in China. Dufry operates travel retail businesses in China since 2008, and manages duty-paid shops at the Shanghai Hong Qiao and Chengdu Airports. Dufry’s presence in Greater China also extends to Hong Kong and Macau.
Photo credit: Xinhua/Guo Cheng
