September 1 witnessed the much expected grand opening of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center which was under the limelight of the business world. General Manager Wang Weimin and Vice Governor of Hainan Province He Xiqing attended the opening ceremony and co-launched the shopping center.
Attending the opening ceremony were Governor Assistant and Provincial Tourism Commission of Hainan Province Lu Zhiyuan, Vice Secretary of the Municipal Committee and Executive Deputy Mayor of Sanya Wu Yanjun, Director of Hainan Provincial Department of Finance Liu Pingzhi, Deputy Commissioner of Haikou Customs Tong Shumin, Vice Director of Hainan Provincial Department of Commerce, Director-General of Hainan Provincial Food and Drug Administration Feng Ming, leadership of CITS Group and Co., Ltd. Yang Chenguang, Peng Hui, Chen Rong, Xue Jun, Li Renzhi, Yu Ningning, Chen Zhenhai, Jiang Jingshan, Chen Zhixin, Chen Wenlong, representatives of over 30 design, construction and engineering agencies including Chairman of Valode et Pistre Architectes (France) Denis Valode, representative of 70 suppliers including Zhou Zhengsheng, Chairman of CNACGC.
Wang Weimin delivered an enthusiastic speech on the opening ceremony. He first expressed his thanks for the support from all on behalf of CITS Group, followed by a brief introduction of the corporate profile, main businesses and future direction for development of CITS Group as well as a review of the development trajectory of the island duty free policy of Hainan and city duty free stores in Sanya. In 2007, CITS conceived the plan for island duty free shopping in Hainan and collaborated with the Provincial Committee and Provincial Government of Hainan to gain policy support for island duty free. In 2011, soon after the pilot launch of CDFG Sanya for island duty free business, it became one of the favorite tourist attractions with over 10,000 visitors daily and has received over 12 million customers up to now, and tourism plus duty free shopping has become a new visiting card for Hainan tourism. He introduced the features and advantages of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center, indicating that the completion and launching of the project shall significantly release the dividend of island duty policy in Hainan and contribute to its construction of international tourism island, while becoming a milestone in the duty free business development in China. According to Wang, Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center is the world’s largest duty free shopping complex covering a total area of 120,000 square meters, integrating shopping, leisure, entertainment and catering function, while featuring international leading position and landmark building. A hub of advantageous resources, it houses 300 international premium fashion brands and over 100,000 carefully selected items, with some of the stores being the newest and trendiest concept stores jointly built with partners, or the largest flagship stores in Asia and even across the world. CITS Group shall continue to bring endless surprises and discoveries for Hainan Province, the city of Sanya as well as tourists in Hainan with top-class brands, quality services and ideal environment. Looking into the future, CITS Group shall further strengthen its confidence and determination to go deeper into the tourism market in Hainan, giving full play to its advantages in capital, brand resources, operation and management by actively integrating the multi-business resources including duty free and travel agency, hence promoting the construction of international tourism island and offering tourists with more diversified and enjoyable tourism shopping experience by leveraging on the brand-new platform of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center. He was convinced that with the support and care from the society as well as the wisdom and dedication of the staff, Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center will score significant achievements, shining with charm and beauty on the shore while making positive contributions to the development of tourism in Hainan.
Deputy Governor of Hainan Province He Xiqing stated in her speech on the opening ceremony that the past three years with the implementation of island duty free shopping policy had witnessed tremendous achievements and enthusiasm from the market. Up to July 2014, over 10 million people shopped at the duty free store, generating heartening economic returns and social benefits and significantly promoting the development of tourism and relevant services in Hainan. The opening of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center would enhance the brand image of the island as well as the shopping experience, hence boosting the economic development of Haitang Bay and effectively increasing the attractiveness of Hainan tourism. Besides, she gave positive remarks on the work of CITS in project planning, engineering construction and brand attraction, expressing her wishes for a brighter outlook for CITS Group, which would add to the diversified experience of tourism market in Hainan.
Denis Valode, Chairman of Valode et Pistre Architectes (France) which was in charge of the overall design of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center delivered a speech on behalf of the constructors. He elaborated on the source of inspiration of the architectural design as well as engineering design highlights including steel-structured vault and landscape skylight. According to Mr. Valode, Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center was a perfect combination of architectural art and building technologies, featuring the elegance and grandeur of begonia, hence deserving to be called a piece of architectural art. He conveyed his wishes that like a beautiful begonia, the fragrance and charm of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center would never fade away.
Featuring simplicity and solemnity, the entire opening was highly recognized with enthusiasm.
After the opening ceremony, Wang Weimin, together with all guests, visited Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center, during which Wang accompanied Deputy Provincial Governor He Xiqing to inspect the stores of various duty free brands including perfumes and cosmetics, premium garments and accessories, bags and suitcases, watches and jewelries, etc. as well as tax included commercial stores including CNACGC and China Gold, inquiring in detail about the commodity preparations and customers’ feedback on the opening promotion campaign and commodity choices, etc., Wang and his team also inspected the catering and rest areas for full understanding of the reception and order of various functional service areas.
The first day of opening was crowded with shoppers. With sufficient preparation, the Shopping Center stood the test of heavy flow, with satisfactory performance in customer reception and guidance, shopping and catering services and generated good sales revenues. Chairman Wang Weimin pointed out that the first day of opening experienced heavy flow of customers, and that all stores shall make the best efforts to satisfy customer needs, ensuring the fast coordination between commodity preparation and store sales and smooth connection between cashier and backstage information, logistics and warehousing so that customers could get what they needed in a timely manner. Attention should be paid to customer flows in functional areas including public rest area and catering service area, especially in brand stores with high density of customers, so that good order and smooth operations would be maintained.
As the world’s largest single-structured duty free store and the first large shopping complex of CITS with co-existence and merger of various business types with duty free as the main business, Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center includes nearly 300 world’s premium brands, offering tourism souvenirs, catering services and other leisure services besides duty free goods. The completion and launching of the project indicates that CITS Group has significantly enhanced its capacity in major project construction, large-scale brand introduction and operation and management of large retail platform and marks a new height achieved in China’s duty free business.