cdf Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex promotional flurry proves a CNY hit

CHINA. cdf Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex enjoyed an influx of consumers as it celebrated the Year of the Snake with an array of activities and promotions.

The Haitang Bay complex welcomed over 300,000 visitors during the first five days (28 January to 1 February) of Chinese New Year holiday, logging 76,000 visits on 1 February alone, according to China Duty Free Group.

In December, 2024, the CNY celebration was officially inscribed in UNESCO’s Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

To highlight this important recognition and the nationwide pride it has inspired, cdf Sanya curated a series of events centred on traditional Chinese arts, crafts and practices.

The dedicated Intangible Cultural Heritage Interactive Zone turned the first floor of Block A into a lively playground, CDFG said, with tourists lining up to receive personalised calligraphy works and sugar snakes from expert calligraphers and craftspeople.

“During the first week of CNY, we set up five areas in the interactive zone, shining a light on five traditional crafts included in China’s List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage – calligraphy, sugar painting, lacquer fan making , rubbing [note: an ancient craft technique used to reproduce textures and patterns from surfaces] and paper cutting,” said cdf Sanya Event Planning Director Fu Bing.

“They attracted a lot of participants, 70% of which are families, and we’ve heard great feedback so far. We hope that through these immersive activities, our customers can experience the allure of traditional Chinese culture in a fun and memorable way.”

In addition, cdf Sanya introduced an array of cultural-themed retail scenarios that combined traditional CNY practices and the island charm of Hainan.

Apart from festive decorations and a special CNY market, visitors could also enjoy a large snake art installation at the outdoor piazza, as well as huohu (fire pot) and huodao (fire knife) performances, fish lantern dances, traditional Chinese music performances and traditional Chinese fashion shows.

Throughout the promotional period, cdf Sanya rolled out out a variety of shopping offers and benefits such as exclusive gifts with purchases, extra points and Year of the Snake-themed merchandise, covering over 900 brands across all 45 duty-free categories.

Consumers were also encouraged to take advantage of government consumption vouchers and a -15% government subsidy for new digital devices.

According to cdf Sanya, cosmetics, digital devices and luxury items proved to be the best-selling categories, with products featuring snake designs particularly popular amongst CNY shoppers.

To handle the surge in traffic, the complex strengthened its service capabilities before CNY. It completed extra safety inspections and supplemented frontline staff with 250 part-time employees to ensure timely responses for inquiries and cut down checkout and packaging time.

It also stocked up on popular products and installed onsite ‘retail butlers’ at the most-visited areas in the mall to answer questions and ensure customers could find the items they were looking for.

cdf Sanya enlisted a team of volunteers to support frontline staff and ensure maximum operational efficiency by providing extra services to customers whenever needed.

“This CNY, our innovative model of ‘duty free + intangible cultural heritage’ has brought a cultural sensibility to the CNY shopping season,” cdf Sanya said.

“In addition, by taking advantage of the Hainan government’s favourable measures and offering high-quality services and products, we helped inject vitality into the market and created a great start for the development of Hainan’s offshore duty-free industry in 2025.

“Looking into the future, we will continue to explore new marketing methods, uncover new duty-free trends, and bring more interesting ‘duty free+’ experiences and scenarios to our consumers.”