Visit Hainan - Australia's Leading Hainan Holiday and Tour website.

Duty-free shopping and visa-free entry have made China's tropical island province Hainan a top destination for foreign tourists.

There is now a total of 26 countries that have been granted visa-free entry to Hainan Island.

Rather than having to wait for a month-long visa process as in the past, tourists from Russia, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea and Malaysia travelling in groups are able to register with authorities just one day ahead of their departure for Hainan.

Hainan has been the focus of a 10-year plan by the Chinese Government to boost its status as an international resort destination by 2020.

The change in policy is part of a State Council-approved plan to build the island province into an international tourist destination, and has saved tourists up to US$70 in visa processing.

'I was still busy with my work in St Petersburg three days ago, but now I am enjoying my vacation here in Sanya,' said a Russian tourist. 'The visa-free entry policy saves us both time and money.'

The island has also seen significant development in its duty free shopping sector as of April 2011, with two major duty free complexes developed in Sanya and Haikou Cities.

Leading China travel website Ctrip has stated that Hainan's resort capital, Sanya City, drew increased volume of tourists during the seven-day National Holiday in October, and attributed this surge to duty free shopping.

According to a survey by Ctrip, about 10 per cent of 4,000 respondents said they would like to visit Hainan during the holiday.

The changes in policies in both duty free shopping and with the free entry visas have boosted numbers of foreign tourists to Hainan enormously, with more than 50,000 foreign tourists visiting Hainan visa-free in the first half of the year, an increase of 30.2 percent year-on-year according to statistics from the Hainan Exit and Entry Administration.

'We have been receiving more than 60 inbound international flights each month,' said Dong Xia, General Manager of the Hainan Shenlong International Tour Agency.

For more information on duty free shopping and visa-free entry in Hainan, go to www.visithainan.com.au.