The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) reveals that its new database of airport, airline, retailer and supplier contacts across the Asia Pacific region – which it first announced at the TFWA Asia Pacific conference earlier this year – is now live on its website for the use of members.

 

This ‘comprehensive’ regional database, which is being updated and expanded all the time, is intended to assist members to connect with the right person in the right place in order to facilitate more efficient business.

 

Once logged in the user is asked to choose whether he is interested in retailers or suppliers. Choosing ‘Retailers’, from a global map the user then selects the region – Asia or Oceania – and is presented with an interactive map showing the major airports, downtown locations and ferry terminals where duty free & travel retail stores are located.

 

For each airport the database will provide contact details for retailers by product category and also for airport commercial managers where available.

 

 

‘IMPROVING CONNECTIVITY’

There is an option to view ‘airlines’, which connects to a list of airlines, displaying the retail companies which provide each airline’s inflight retail service, along with the retailers’ contact details.

 

If the user chooses ‘Suppliers’ instead, a dozen product categories are offered each one of which contains details of participating suppliers in that category.

 

Jaya Singh, President APTRA, commented: “Improving connectivity is one of the pillars of the APTRA strategy for developing duty free & travel retail in Asia Pacific and this Database is the first major step towards that objective. We are grateful to the many members who have already contributed contact details and whose businesses, as a result, can now be found online by their industry colleagues.

 

“The value-add for members is clear. This is only the first milestone and many companies and key people will recognise the scalability and the all-round benefits that this brings. The potential growth of the database going forward is indeed exciting. Most importantly, in the feedback culture that we have actively encouraged, this is exactly what the members were asking for. I am very pleased that the APTRA board and executive team, as well as all those who are contributing, have been able to deliver on a clear need. It is a very significant first step forward.”

 

 

APTRA’S AMBITIONS LAID BARE

Members wishing to access the APTRA Database are invited to visit http://database.aptra.asia and complete the registration procedure.

 

In an exclusive interview conducted in May, TRBusiness talked to Singh about self regulation, developments over the coming year, and the question of whether established brands should adapt to accommodate the decline in spending from the Chinese consumers.

 

TRBusiness also heard from Michael Barrett, Executive Officer for APTRA, who talked about several key issues that the organisation is currently involved in. This included the appeal to overturn recent domestic regulations imposed on the sale of duty free liquor and confectionery by the Indian government that are problematic on a global level.