Tourists visit a duty free shop in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Feb. 18, 2018. (Xinhua)

HAIKOU, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Offshore duty-free shops on China's island province of Hainan raked in 6.5 billion yuan (about 944.8 million U.S. dollars) in sales in the first half of 2019, up 26.56 percent year on year, local customs said.

Official data showed that Hainan's duty-free shops received about 1.7 million customers and sold nearly 8.94 million items over the period, up 15.98 percent and 27.54 percent respectively.

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.

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

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 by 2020.