Airports in Africa have an opportunity to elevate the duty free experience by placing travelling shoppers at the centre of commercial decision making, Africa Travel Retail’s Chichi Maponya has told TRBusiness.

In the second of a two-part TRBusiness ‘Ghana Shorts’ video special, produced in partnership with Bluedog Group and filmed on the ground at the MEADFA Conference (19-21 November) in Accra, Ghana, Maponya stressed the importance of taking a consumer-centric approach to the product mix and merchandising assortment.

“The African traveller is astute, aspirational and exposed to many brands in the world,” she said. “As they travel through Africa, they are expecting to see the same quality, world-class facilities and the offering must measure up with international standards.”

During an exchange that also featured Africa Travel Retail’s Martin Ntuli, Maponya was keen to stress that retailers and brands should not neglect the brand proposition, product or service offering when selling to young, discerning African travelling shoppers.

While touching on the challenges of contract lengths and space availability for duty free activities within African airports, Maponya flagged an opportunity to place a much greater focus on local goods, bespoke offerings and creating a vibrant, engaging travel shopping environment.

On the collaboration between airports, brand owners and retailers, she added: “When you corner that properly, you give the best to your travel shopper; they will feel the sincerity if it is well-coordinated [with the travelling shopper in mind].”

Africa Duty Free operates duty free and duty paid shops, convenience stores, fashion outlets and wholesale activities at various airports, train stations, downtown and land border shops, sea ports, onboard airlines, diplomatic shops, cruise ships and strategic tourist destinations.

To watch the part 1 video interview with Africa Travel Retail, click here.

To read and watch more from the MEADFA Conference in Accra, Ghana, click the below links:

READ MORE: MEADFA Conference day 2

READ MORE: MEADFA Ghana day 1

READ MORE: More than 300 attendees to inaugural West Africa MEADFA Conference

READ MORE: Manuel González, Marketing Director, Beam Suntory Global Travel Retail on TRBusiness Ghana Shorts

READ MORE: Sherif Toulan, President, MEADFA on TRBusiness Ghana Shorts 

READ MORE: MEADFA Conference: 90 Second News Special

To view more episodes in the TRBusiness ‘Shorts’ series, click here and scroll to the footer to access an archive.