By Martin Mou

China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. said Friday that its first-half net profit fell sharply, as sales from duty-free goods declined due to travel restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Net profit slumped 72% from a year earlier to 930.5 million yuan ($135.1 million), while revenue dropped 22% to CNY19.31 billion, the duty-free-shop operator said.

Despite suffering a relatively big shock from the pandemic, the company said its major operations have shown signs of rapid recovery in the first half.

The company's revenue from duty-free goods sales in the tourist hotspot of Sanya grew 12% to CNY5.98 billion. However, sales from the Shanghai and Beijing airports fell due to reduced passenger traffic.

The company's Shanghai-listed shares have more than doubled year to date, as Beijing's push to encourage domestic duty-free consumption boosts share price of duty-free-shop operators. 



  Write to Martin Mou at martin.mou@wsj.com