Asian growth potential

Emerging Asia was the theme of this year's Asia Pacific workshop at the Tax Free World Association (TFWA) Exhibition in Cannes.

The workshop begun with a presentation from Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) president Sunil Tuli who highlighted the growth potential of Asia/Pacific markets and urged the industry to capitalise. "New low-cost carriers are popping up like mushrooms in the underground," he said, "but are we ready and do we even know what sort of market we are dealing with?"

Emerging Asia/Pacific markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines may be small compared to other  markets in the region but "the potential is unquestionable" according to Tuli. "A sleeping dragon has been woken by the internet, television and tales of other travellers and believe me it is about to grow."
Despite revealing a sense of optimism in terms of the future of duty-free tobacco sales Tuli warned: "This experience with tobacco has led us to be more proactive with the next attack which will inevitably come on the liquor category."

Regarding a possible ban on duty-free liquor sales in Asia he eluded to the "devastating" impact this would have on duty-free business around the world. "APTRA has been working alongside a team of people from the liquor companies and retailers this year in putting together a code of conduct for the sale of alcohol in duty-free.

"The anti-alcohol non-governmental organisations will be trying to target the duty-free market in their attempts to reduce alcohol abuse. We aim to pre-empt this by ensuring the liquor companies and retailers are doing everything possible to ensure the responsible promotion and sale of alcohol in our duty-free environment."

Next to speak was TFWA international sales manager Mathieu Vanhalst who presented a regional overview highlighting airport expansion projects in emerging Asian markets. According to Vanhalst a $290bn plan has been approved to develop 700 airports in Asia. These include a $6.5bn investment at Long Thahn airport in Vietnam, expansion of Soekarno Hatta airport in Indonesia, expansions of Kochi and Bangalore airports in India and opening of 78 airports in China over the next 10 years. Vanhalst also revealed a 22% increase in Asia/Pacific duty-free sales in 2010 and that Asia/Pacific carriers saw a return to profitability.

Pacific Asia Travel Association Europe regional director Marion Butler then presented several key tourism-related statistics. International tourism in Asia/Pacific rose 4.5% in the first half of the year with international visitor arrivals in the Pacific up 2% according to Butler, who added: "China and India are not the only game in town. Emerging Asian destinations are trending upwards."

The final speaker was m1nd-set partner Peter Mohn who offered an insight into the buying habits of consumers in Asian duty-free markets. A m1nd-set survey concluded that travellers in Asian duty-free shops devote 21 minutes to shopping with 28% making unplanned purchases due to offers and promotions.

Source - dfnionline