Lagardère Travel Retail accelerates expansion in China with new downtown Duty Free store in Sanya, Hainan

Lagardère Travel Retail has partnered with Hainan Tourism Investment Development to open the second large scale downtown Duty Fee in Sanya, on the Chinese island of Hainan. With these openings, Lagardère Travel Retail continues to capitalize on booming Chinese consumer demand and further strengthens its presence in Asia.

Building on its track record of partnership with strong local players, Lagardère Travel Retail has partnered with Chinese state-owned enterprise Hainan Tourism Investment Development to launch new Duty Free operations in downtown Sanya, Hainan, China’s tropical holiday hotspot.

Under a strategic supply and service agreement with HTI, Lagardère Travel Retail has brought 278 brands to Hainan for today’s opening. Product categories including Perfumes & Cosmetics, Fashion & Accessories, Watches & Jewelry, Wine & Spirits, Confectionery & Fine Food, Toys can be found on more than 30,000 sqm over five floors.

In addition to its global Duty Free expertise and experience developing large-scale, high end travel retail concessions, Lagardère Travel Retail is bringing the best of its portfolio of brand partners to the project, including all key Western and Asian Beauty brands, a wide range luxury Fashion, high-end Watches, fine Liquor, etc. Over a dozen of these brands are new to Hainan. These new and exclusive brands include Dyptique, Byredo, Gucci Makeup, Victoria’s Secret, Blancpain, Hublot, Fred, MaxMara Weekend, Lanvin, etc.

Commenting on this opening, Eudes Fabre, CEO for North Asia at Lagardère Travel Retail said : “We are very excited to play a leading role in Sanya’s world-class new Duty Free project. Working in close partnership with Hainan Tourism Investment Development, we made this large-scale opening happen in record time. It is a very ambitious project in terms of scale and timing and I’m very proud of how our teams, locally and globally based, came together to rise to the challenge of delivering a comprehensive and enchanting Duty Free shopping experience in downtown Sanya. We also had tremendous feedback and support from all our brand partners to pull this project off in a record 120 days, while having a team of 2,000 travel retail professionals based in China was the key to success.

“Chinese consumers spending at home has boomed as a result of both the global pandemic and local government policies to stimulate domestic consumption. This creates a great potential for Lagardère Travel Retail to continue its growth in China.
“We also hope the phenomenal growth of Hainan also is a responsible, sustainable one. Besides sales we are very focused on delivering unrivalled customer experience and building brand image”.

In line with the tremendous improvement of the sanitary situation in China, the island of Hainan has been free of Covid-19 for over six months and is becoming an increasingly attractive tourism and leisure destination for Chinese consumers. The opening of large-scale Duty Free facilities in Hainan is testament to China’s efforts to rebalance its economy from an export-driven model towards domestic consumption. The pandemic and closures of most international borders have further accelerated the re-shoring of Chinese consumer spending: Morgan Stanley estimates re-shored consumption could be as high as USD165bn in 2020.

Lagardère Travel Retail started operations in China in 2007 and now has over 400 stores in 26 airports. Recently it has opened several new luxury fashion and beauty stores in domestic airports, including Chanel, Cartier, Burberry, Dior and Sandro.