{"id":914,"date":"2024-09-19T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/?p=914"},"modified":"2024-09-19T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:45:04","slug":"china-banks-on-yeconomy-to-bolster-hainans-duty-free-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/china-banks-on-yeconomy-to-bolster-hainans-duty-free-sector.html","title":{"rendered":"China Banks on \u2018Yeconomy\u2019 to Bolster Hainan\u2019s Duty Free Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

After South Korea, Haikou, a duty-free coastal hub in\u00a0Hainan<\/a>\u00a0Province, has become the latest Asia stop for Ye\u2019s \u201cVultures Listening Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0controversial performer<\/a>\u2018s choice to host his show in Haikou, a\u00a0Chinese<\/a>\u00a0duty-free port in Hainan Province, was in part a bold move orchestrated by the local government to boost tourism and drive consumption amid a\u00a0prolonged economic slowdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

China<\/a>\u2018s strict censorship rules require foreign artists to submit a set list of songs and lyrics before the performance; Ye\u2019s concert was no exception to the rule. In addition, Haikou city officials received multiple official complaints about Ye\u2019s controversial remarks.<\/p>\n

However, Hainan officials decided to proceed with the concert, framing it as a \u201chistorical moment, a miracle\u201d as the city speeds up recovery from Hurricane Scorpio, which also damaged the concert stadium. The surprise performance will also help Haikou become \u201ca performing arts hub in\u00a0China<\/a>,\u201d according to the People\u2019s Daily, a state-owned media publication.<\/p>\n

Billed as Ye\u2019s only China destination, around 42,000 tickets for the Sunday concert, which coincided with China\u2019s three-day\u00a0Mid-Autumn Festival holiday<\/a>, sold out within minutes.<\/p>\n

According to ticketing platforms Damai and Maoyan, more than 96.5 percent of concertgoers were travelers, with the highest number of visitors coming from\u00a0Shanghai<\/a>, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu.<\/p>\n

The concert, which featured a UFO-like wheat field stage designed by the Berlin-based architecture firm Sub, was enveloped in red ambient lighting that symbolized prosperity and good luck.<\/p>\n

Ye, who performed mostly alongside Ty Dolla $ign, also debuted a new song titled \u201cPreacher Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Haikou Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the concert generated 373 million renminbi, or $52.22 million, in tourism revenue.<\/p>\n

Overnight visitors helped drive hotel occupancy\u00a0rate\u00a0up by over 41 percent\u00a0year-over-year and is\u00a0expected to bring in more than 45 million renminbi, or $6.3 million, in hotel revenue.<\/p>\n

In hopes of boosting tourism spending, the Haikou government not only set up help desks called\u00a0\u201cPerks for\u00a0Kanye West<\/a>\u00a0Fans\u201d\u00a0at the airport but also worked with duty-free malls to launch discount initiatives, a move that recently ignited\u00a0a shopping frenzy in Wuhan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At CDF Haikou International Duty-Free Shopping Complex, the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0largest duty-free store, concertgoers could enjoy 10 to 15 percent discounts on full-priced goods across brands, receive a 2,778 renminbi or $391 voucher, and line up for free Shack Shack and drinks at the shopping mall bar. The deal lasted four days, through Tuesday.<\/p>\n

According to the local government, duty-free sales reached 56 million renminbi, or $7.8 million, on Sunday, rising 4.5 percent year-over-year.<\/p>\n

To further boost Hainan\u2019s new-found \u201cYeconomy\u201d\u00a0opportunity, the city plans to host a second \u201cVultures Listening Party\u201d on Saturday.<\/p>\n

For Chinese netizens, the concert was also a homecoming for the American rapper, who spent a year in the city of Nanjing, when his mother Donda West was an English professor at a local university.<\/p>\n

Ye\u2019s every move during his Haikou trip was well-documented on Chinese social media platforms.\u00a0After the concert, he\u00a0was seen\u00a0taking\u00a0his children to a local Miniso, a budget retailer favored by China\u2019s Gen Zers. Chinese netizens largely praised Ye for being thrifty, mirroring the preference among Chinese consumers for cheap thrills amid a slow economic recovery.<\/p>\n

With local shoppers pulling back on spending,\u00a0Haikou\u2019s\u00a0duty-free sales\u00a0dropped 30 percent in the first seven months of 2024, according to official customs data.<\/p>\n

Since this May, the third-tier city has been betting on the concert economy to boost local tourism. In an official memo published on May 30, the government said it would award organizers a maximum of 3 million\u00a0renminbi, or around $422,000, for bringing\u00a0in\u00a0\u201chigh-quality performances\u201d\u00a0to the city.<\/p>\n

To boost the onshore duty-free market, Hainan will establish an independent customs system in 2025, which means shoppers\u00a0will be able to\u00a0purchase\u00a0luxury<\/a>\u00a0goods without paying customs duty on the tropical island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After South Korea, Haikou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}