APTRA President Jaya Singh has announced a new plan to step up the association’s ‘service to airports in the Asia Pacific region’ with a new series of Airport Forums, plus the creation of ‘a dedicated online Resource Centre’.

 

Speaking at today’s TFWA China’s Century Conference in Guangzhou Singh said that the Airport Forums will be organised so that they run alongside existing industry events. He said this will give airport executives the opportunity to benefit to discuss important issues and exchange ideas.

 

Meanwhile, the ‘Resource Centre’ is to be ‘an airport access-only’ section of the APTRA website that will house brand and retailer data, marketing activities, retail executions and research reports with the aim of helping landlords to benchmark and improve the way they operate travel retail in their airport.

 

HELPING TO KEEP AIRPORTS UP TO DATE…

Commenting today, Singh said: “Although some airports belong to a national or regional group which provides them with benchmarks, many operate in isolation, without comparative data, oblivious to impending policy changes which will impact their businesses.

 

“We believe that airport management teams will benefit from a forum where they can congregate and exchange ideas freely, without the distraction of brands and retailers and a dedicated bank of airport-specific information.”

 

APTRA reports that the first of these forums will be hosted by the Changi Airport Group on 7 May on the Sunday prior to the opening of the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference.

 

‘CALIBRATION’ TO BEGIN IN SINGAPORE

The association adds that this first meeting will be designed to ‘calibrate the service offered to airports by APTRA’ and to start the networking and data-sharing process.

 

In turn, the plan is for the APTRA Airports Resource Centre to go live later this year and, in time, APTRA intends to supplement the information available with airport-specific research reports.

 

Singh added: “We intend to improve radically the service which APTRA offers to its airport colleagues. We value enormously the input of these ‘honorary ambassadors’ when we are preparing a defence of our industry, as their testimony is authoritative and highly respected by the regulatory authorities.”