Guoyuan International: Hainan customs clearance policy dividends continue to be released, suggestions focus on China's China's customs clearance policy (01880) and Meilan Airport (00357)

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Guoyuan International released a research report saying that after the customs closure of the entire island of Hainan, the cultural tourism market showed an explosive growth trend of “duty-free consumption explosion+surge in inbound passenger flow+travel traffic upgrade”, directly benefiting the three types of stock targets of outlying island duty-free leaders, tourist transportation hubs, and local cultural tourism operators in Hainan. It is recommended to focus on China Intermediary Service (01880) and Meilan Airport (00357).

Guoyuan International's main views are as follows:

According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 142 million people traveled domestically across the country during the New Year's Day holiday, at a total cost of 84.789 billion yuan

The national nighttime cultural and tourism consumption agglomeration area had a total of 42,718,200 nighttime visitors. Short trips have become mainstream, and local leisure, short-distance travel, and surrounding tours in the city are popular. It is worth noting that during New Year's Day, Hainan Province received 2.1716 million visitors, an increase of 25.2% over the same period in 2025; the total cost of tourism was 3.136 billion yuan, an increase of 28.9% over the previous year. As the Hainan international route network continues to be encrypted, covering many key regions in Asia and Europe, and superimposing multi-platform foreign-related marketing and promotion, the inbound travel market achieved “explosive growth” on New Year's Day. According to data from January 1, the number of inbound air ticket orders in Sanya increased fivefold over the same period last year, and Haikou increased nearly three times, ranking in the top two growth rates in the country. Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, and Australia have become major tourist destinations, and the continuous influx of international tourists has enriched the tourist source structure of Hainan. At the same time, driven by expectations of the Hainan Free Trade Port closure policy, “shopping+vacation” became the mainstream model, and the occupancy rate of hotels around CNOOC Duty Free City increased about 1.5 times over the same period last year. During the New Year's Day holiday, tourist reception places in Hainan were very popular. The average occupancy rate of operating accommodation units in the province reached 79.01%, an increase of 3.8 percentage points over the previous year; A-level tourist attractions received 1.4216 million visitors, an increase of 35.5% year on year; coconut level rural tourist sites received 361,800 visitors, an increase of 66.3% year on year.

Customs clearance policy dividends continue to be released, and travel+duty-free shopping creates a growth engine

The 2026 New Year's Day holiday was the first long holiday after the closure of the entire island of Hainan Free Trade Port, and the tourism market had a “good start”. The province received 2.1716 million visitors, a year-on-year increase of 25.2% according to a comparable scale; total tourism revenue reached 3.136 billion yuan, an increase of 28.9% over the previous year. The revenue growth rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than the number of visitors, indicating that the consumption structure continues to be optimized. Outlying islands have shown outstanding performance in areas such as tax exemption and inbound tourism. The bank believes that the dividends of the customs closure policy and diversified product supply will jointly push the Hainan tourism market into a new stage of high-quality development. After the customs closure of the entire island of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the outlying islands achieved multiple optimizations. The product categories were expanded from more than 1,900 items to 6,637 items, compounded by concessions during the New Year's Day holiday, boosting consumer enthusiasm. According to the data, duty-free sales on the outlying islands during the New Year's Day holiday were 712 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 128.9%, of which first-day sales were 251 million yuan, up 93.8% year on year; the number of shoppers was 83,500, up 60.6% year on year, and the customer unit price rose to 8,527 yuan, reflecting the effectiveness of policy optimization and promotion activities to stimulate consumption potential. Meanwhile, after the customs closure of Hainan, the international route network continued to expand. The number of inbound air ticket orders from Sanya and Haikou increased 5 times and 3 times, respectively, over the same period last year, ranking in the top two in the country. As of 17:00 on January 3, Hainan had tested and released more than 28,000 visitors. Passenger traffic increased by 23.5% over the same period last year. Among them, Haikou Meilan International Airport had more than 16,000 inbound and outbound passengers, an increase of 41.8%; Sanya Phoenix International Airport had more than 11,000 inbound and outbound passengers, an increase of 19.8% over the previous year. Among them, visitors from Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand such as Malaysia, Thailand, and South Korea became the main source of visitors. This high increase in inbound tourism not only broadened the customer base structure, but also led to an increase in supporting consumption in high-end hotels, restaurants, etc. For example, during New Year's Day, hotel occupancy rates around Sanya International Duty Free City increased 1.5 times over the same period last year.