HAIKOU, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Offshore duty-free shops on China's island province of Hainan raked in 95.3 million yuan (about 13.8 million U.S. dollars) in sales during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, up 51.2 percent year on year, local customs said.

Preliminary official data showed that the duty-free shops received over 28,000 customers and sold over 137,000 items in the period, up 34.6 percent and 49.9 percent respectively over the same period of 2018.

Online sales registered striking growth this year. Sales from Haikou Meilan International Airport's online duty-free shops rose fourfold during the holiday from a year ago, with both the number of buyers and items sold tripled.

The State Council 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.

Since December 2018, the duty-free shopping quota in Hainan was raised to 30,000 yuan per year from the previous 16,000 yuan, without limits on the number of purchases.