China will encourage new tourist activities, including horse racing, sports betting and an instant lottery, in Hainan province to boost the province's tourism sector.
Starting Dec 28, domestic and overseas tourists, as well as Hainan residents boarding ships to leave the island, will be allowed to make duty-free purchases.
Hainan's online press conference hall, which features the first multichannel live-streaming system in the country, has recently become operational.
China's southern province of Hainan will start building a scenic highway around the island in the first half of 2019 to boost tourism, according to the provincial transport department.
As China experiences a rapidly expanding marine economy, lawmakers have warned of a grim situation in offshore pollution if the country lets its guard down.
Haikou, Sanya and the Yangpu Economic Development Zone in Hainan province were named national logistics hubs in a planning document issued on Dec 21 by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport.
Visits by overseas tourists to China's southernmost island province of Hainan reached about 1.1 million in the first 11 months of the year, up 12.6 percent year on year, local authorities said Sunday.
