Estée Lauder Companies, L’Oréal Suffer as China Duty-Free Spend Continues to Fall

Unable to travel overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers sparked a shopping boom in the southernmost province of Hainan, lured by the tropical island’s plethora of duty-free shopping malls.

Fast forward to today and the travel-retail sector in Hainan is in a 14-month slump with little sign of a turnaround. Duty-free sales dropped 10.8 percent over the first four months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from the local customs agency. Both…