TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen says the industry has a ‘real chance to re-energise’ travel retail.

The TFWA President on why the global travel retail industry shouldn’t expect things to just go back to the way they were in 2019…

“Four years is a long time,” wrote Tax Free World Association (TFWA) President Erik Juul-Mortensen in the May edition of TRBusiness. Addressing readers ahead of the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition which took place in Singapore earlier this month, he issued something of a rallying cry: “We have a real chance to re-energise the industry by reminding Asian travellers what makes duty free and travel retail special.”

He struck an optimistic note, too: Recent data suggests that Asia Pacific will see the largest year-on-year percentage gains in air traffic in 2023. New travellers will include a number of first-time travellers, many of them young, and travel to short-haul destinations will be top of the wish-list for Asian passengers.”

Juul-Mortensen also spoke of a move towards ‘patriotic’ shopping in the channel, with local, national and regional brands, with which shoppers have an “emotional bond”, coming to the fore.

“We need to get to know our customers again,” he stated. It’s time to work out new ways of appealing to a changing consumer.

For more from Erik Juul-Mortensen, see the May edition of TRBusiness, available in print and online now.