Getting Comms Right

Taking to the stage for the last time in his capacity as president of TFWA Erik Juul-Mortensen reflected on his 34 years of involvement in the organisation. “In 1985, the first Tax Free World Exhibition housed 449 brand-owning companies, covering 6,000 square metres of space and welcomed almost 3,000 visitors. This year we welcome close to 7,000 visitors and we have over 22,500 square metres of exhibition space.”

Moving on to the latest data from Generation on recent performance of the industry, he said that the global duty free and travel retail industry recorded close to double-digit growth in 2017. Total sales reached 69.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 9.5% on the previous year.

Once again, it was Asia Pacific that was at the heart of this growth. Last year the region posted growth of 12.6% and exceeded 30 billion US dollars in sales, bringing the region ever closer to representing half of global duty free and travel retail sales. But very encouraging numbers were also recorded elsewhere in the world. Europe, the Middle East and the Americas all posted growth of over 7%.

However, the industry is not without its challenges, and as his generation takes a step back, Juul-Mortensen said it is vital that a new one steps forward to fight the battles to come. “To paraphrase John F Kennedy: ‘ask not what your industry can do for you, but what you can do for your industry’.”