HAIKOU — China's island province of Hainan raked in 55.07 billion yuan ($7.78 billion) in duty-free sales in the past nine years, according to customs of the provincial capital city of Haikou.

The State Council gave Hainan permission to run a pilot offshore duty-free program on April 20, 2011, in an effort to make the island a world-class tourist destination.

Statistics showed that duty-free shops in Hainan received over 16.09 million customers and sold over 72 million duty-free goods over the past nine years.

In January last year, Hainan opened two new offshore duty-free shops in Haikou and Qionghai, adding to the previous two in Haikou and Sanya.

The province opened two duty-free experience shops in Sanya last week where customers are allowed to visit the bricks-and-mortar stores and place orders online.