China Duty Free Sector: Virtual tour takeaway: insights from global and Hainan travel retail experts

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China Duty Free Sector: Virtual tour takeaway: insights from global and Hainan travel retail experts

Global Research

15 July 2026ab

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EquitiesChina Duty Free Sector

Virtual tour takeaway: insights from global and China

Hainan travel retail experts Leisure Goods & Services

Xin Chen

Analyst

xin.chen@ubs.com

Global travel retail sees mixed recovery; Hainan sales may rebound in H2 vs. Q2 +86-21-3866 8864

We invited two industry experts to discuss the latest trends in the global travel retail (TR) Ingrid Zhang

market and Hainan duty-free sector. As per the experts: 1) Global TR market reached Analyst

cUS$76bn in 2025, yet remains below its 2019 peak of US$86.4bn due to slow recovery S1460517080003

in the APAC region, which dropped to a 40% market share from 52% pre-pandemic. ingrid.zhang@ubs.com

2) Europe and the Americas have fully recovered or exceeded pre-pandemic levels, +86-21-3866 8853

driven by structural operational changes and shifting passenger demographics. 3) Beini Du

Global TR market is likely to sustain a 3% growth in 2026-27. 4) For Hainan, top-line Associate

growth slowed down in Q2 2026 (May +0.4% YoY, June c+8% YoY) after a strong surge S1460525090002

in Q1, but a solid rebound is anticipated for the Q3 given the summer peak season. betty-za.du@ubs.com

+86-213-866 8753

Regional markets: APAC weakness vs. robust Western airport recovery Jae Hyung Choi

As per the experts: 1) The APAC travel retail market contracted by 4.2% YoY in 2025, Analyst

representing one of the weakest links in global tourism recovery. This drag is primarily jaehyung.choi@ubs.com

+82-2-3702 8172

attributed to South Korea, whose TR market has almost shrunk to c50% of its pre-

pandemic US$21.5bn size due to a strict crackdown on the Daigou channels that