CHINA. Welcome to the latest issue of The Moodie Davitt China Travel Retail Report, published to coincide with the fourth China International Consumer Products Expo (Hainan Expo), to be held in Haikou from 13-18 April.
As always, The Moodie Davitt Report team will be out in force (this year with a five-strong team) at the event – the only international travel retail publication to support what we see as a critical showcase for the Hainan offshore duty-free market and Free Trade Port programme.
This issue is packed with compelling reading. And viewing. For we are proud to feature the premiere production from Moodie Davitt STUDIO, our new film division based out of Haikou and Hong Kong.
Our debut video features a visit to the Zhuo Zhou Shanlan Rice Wine distillery in Qiongzhong, Hainan, China.
There, our Asia Pacific Content Strategist, Haikou-based Lara Netherlands, meets with Zhuo Zhou Shanlan Rice Wine’s inspirational Founder & CEO Zeng Fanhua to discover the extraordinary tale behind a long-secret recipe buried in the island province for hundreds of years.
The resultant bi-lingual film, shot and edited by Haikou-based Alexander Roux with production assistance from Chen Ming (‘Mao’), will also be shown in coming days on The Moodie Davitt Report’s website, in our May Magazine (print and digital) and on a newly created Moodie Davitt STUDIO YouTube channel.
It will be also amplified across our two WeChat accounts and on The Moodie Davitt Report LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Facebook platforms.
Invented by the Li people, a matriarchal minority group on the island, Shanlan Rice Wine dates back to 1097 AD when the famous Chinese poet, Su Dongpo, was exiled to the province.
In the film Zeng vividly recalls his first encounter with Shanlan Rice Wine during a visit to Hainan. “When I first tasted the sweetness of Shanlan Rice Wine, I was not only intrigued by its flavour, but was also fascinated to learn that it was the very wine that my idol, Su Dongpo, drank during his exile in Hainan,” he says.
“I had to make it my mission to invest my time, money and energy into the wine and develop it into something that more people could enjoy. I could not let the wine that my idol, Su Dongpo, drank remain buried in Hainan for another thousand years.”
This beautifully shot film shows how that mission became reality in the form of Zhuo Zhou Shanlan Rice Wine.
As we note in this edition, the 2024 Hainan Expo comes at a particularly fascinating and important time for Hainan. On the one hand, Chinese outbound travel is once again resurgent, raising the question as to how it will affect Hainan – famously dubbed by The Moodie Davitt Report as ‘the lighthouse of travel retail’ during those dark, COVID-ravaged days of 2020 and 2021 as most of the sector globally was plunged into darkness.
On the other hand, we are now in sight of 2025 when Hainan will effectively become a wholly tax- and duty-free province, its island-wide Free Trade Port system focused on trade and investment liberalisation (with full maturity by 2035).
What will that spell for Hainan’s offshore duty-free sector? It’s the question I am asked most – and the one I ask most. I am yet to give or hear a definitive answer and that’s because the precise nature of the 2025 and beyond Hainan landscape is still taking shape, even if its foundation principles are very much in place.
Certainly, as outlined in a post-results earnings call in early April, sector giant China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp (CTG) is confident of its prospects, both short and long term, in the island province. That optimism applies to China Duty Free Group’s (CDFG) traditional offshore duty-free business and CTG’s fast-developing duty-paid operations.
Last year Swire Properties and CTG jointly opened the outstanding Sanya Yunjie Island duty- & tax-paid project in Haitang Bay, studded with some of the world’s leading luxury brands and including the biggest calling card of them all, Louis Vuitton.
As we report, in nearby Yalong Bay, DFS Group is on a perhaps even more ambitious journey, pledging to create a world-class, seven-star luxury retail and entertainment destination by 2026. Such developments – and there will be many others – will ultimately enhance Hainan’s stature as a world-class travel destination for Mainland citizens and foreigners alike.
There’s much more to savour in this edition, published as always in Chinese and English – underlining our deep commitment to the China market. Please enjoy. ✈
About Moodie Davitt STUDIOMoodie Davitt STUDIO is dedicated to high-quality storytelling centred on the people, brands, retailers and locations that make up the global travel retail and airport commercial revenue sectors. Moodie Davitt STUDIO productions will feature a wide variety of formats and subject matter, from short-form film to longer documentaries and even series. The films will be fronted variously by The Moodie Davitt Report Co-Owners Martin Moodie and Dermot Davitt, Asia Pacific Content Strategist Lara Netherlands and Brands Director Hannah Tan-Gillies. The production team includes Alexander Roux and Chen Ming (‘Mao’) in Haikou and Declan Moodie in London. The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie said: “Quality storytelling has been at the heart of our success over the past two decades and we believe the time is right to enhance that capability through the greater use of film. “We plan to work closely with brands, retailers and airports to bring their stories to life in an imaginative, informative manner. Our distribution platform is second to none and we fully expect to attract both a B2B and consumer audience for many of our productions, another first for our industry. “With our strong Hainan and Asia base, we are especially well placed to cover some of travel retail’s biggest stories in a new and fresh way, bolstering our already best-in-class coverage.” *For partnership enquiries please reach out to: Irene@MoodieDavittReport.com (International) Yimei@MoodieDavittReport.com (China) |
