What the TFWA wants you to know about travel retail this year

Global travel retail businesses must work together and tailor their gameplan for the future to accomodate the changing landscape of the sector, according to the TFWA.

Opening the 2023 show TFWA Exhibition & Conference, which begins this week at the Palais de Festivals in Cannes, TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen said: “Travellers are returning but buying patterns have evolved.”

The show this year, which will run from 1-5 October, is in its 38th year and spans a record-breaking amount of floor space – more than 25,000 square metres, which is above pre-Covid levels still has some challenges to face, Juul-Mortensen explained when addressing delegates at this year’s event.

Describing the shape of the future of the GTR sector, Juul-Mortensen warned: “Industry stakeholders must work together more closely. Our industry must transition from a one-size-fits-all approach. We meet to think beyond the trinity of retailers, brands and airports and include media and digital companies and also airlines.”

Speaking to the drinks business, TFWA member services manager Nicole Daniells said: “We are seeing lots of new members joining. We hear include smaller distilleries, like craft distilleries, especially from the UK”,

New this year to the show is the Majestic Beach Village which has been added on the seafront on La Croisette however Juul-Mortensen highlighted how there was still that needed to be done to combat some of the issues the sector will face in the approaching year – primarily the World Health Organisation tackling the sale of illicit tobacco products via travel retail which he hinted was not where the problems can tuly be found.

He added: “We need to stand firm on the face of the WHO’s misplaced efforts’ to halt illicit trade, because they are a real threat to our industry.”