CHINA will offer greater visa-free access to Hainan for tourists from 59 countries from May 1, in a move to support reform and opening up in the country’s southernmost island province, the State Immigration Administration announced yesterday.

Under the new policy, group and individual tourists from 59 countries, including Russia, Britain, France, Germany and the United States, can visit Hainan visa-free and stay there for up to 30 days on condition that they book their tour through travel agencies.

Hainan has offered a 15-day visa-free stay for group tourists from 21 countries since 2000, and added another five countries to the list in 2010.

“By extending the policy to individuals and the stay to up to 30 days, the government aims to attract more international tourists, nurture the tourism industry and meet the needs of foreign individuals,” said the administration’s vice head Qu Yunhai.

The liberalization comes as part of a package of reforms to remake the island as a free trade zone and a beacon of openness for China.

On Monday, China announced it would allow Hainan to develop horse racing and explore opening new types of lotteries connected to sports and international competitions.

It also said it wants to position Hainan as a “center of international tourism consumption,” a goal that has faced slow progress despite sandy beaches and massive spending on plush resorts.

The island has become a famous tropical resort for overseas tourists in recent years, with the number of overseas tourists exceeding 1.1 million in 2017, up nearly 50 percent year on year.

Also yesterday, Hainan’s finance department said the province plans to establish an offshore duty-free shop in Boao, a town in the city of Qionghai.

Wang Yalin, an official with the department, said Hainan’s offshore duty-free shopping policy will cover all outbound tourists,  including ship passengers, in the future.

The moves will further boost tourism and related industries on the popular resort island, Wang said.

Currently Hainan has two duty-free shops, with one in the provincial capital Haikou and the other in the resort city of Sanya on the southern tip of the island. They target outbound passengers who leave the island by flight or train.

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

As of the end of March, the offshore duty-free shops in Hainan recorded more than 33.87 billion yuan (US$5.3 billion) in sales and attracted more than 10 million tourists.(Xinhua)