The Narita Airport Authority (NAA) at Tokyo Narita International Airport is looking for a major improvement in duty free and travel retail sales when its new ‘Nakamise’ shopping mall opens in the airport?s Terminal 1

South Wing this June.
‘The name, Narita Nakamise is meant to convey the image in Japanese of a bustling shopping mall located in the heart of the departure area,’ says Narita International Airport Corporation Business Development Supervisor Koichi Sugano.
Fashion boutiques will be central to NAA's approach and Narita Nakamise will house nine branded boutiques, one watch boutique, two duty free shops, two specialist duty free shops (cosmetics and perfumes and liquor and tobacco), and two general tax free shops and a food court.
NAA will run the new branded boutiques through three retail joint ventures with retail tenants JAL/DFS, JATCo, and ANA Trading Duty Free. NAA controls a 66% stake in each of these joint ventures.
The NAA & JAL/DFS joint-venture will run the Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Emporio Armani and Ralph Lauren boutiques; NAA & JATCo will operate the Cartier, Herm?s and Ferragamo boutiques and a watch outlet; NAA and ANA Trading will run a Bvlgari boutique. The Terminal 1 joint-ventures will run until 2011. NAA then has the option of taking full control and could become a fully integrated airport operator like London's World Duty Free, or Ireland's Aer Rianta International.
‘NAA's retailing subsidiaries are the main force behind the development of new shopping facilities in the South Wing in Terminal 1 and the central section of the main building in Terminal 2,’ said Sugano.
‘The objective is to expand revenue from retailing by expanding and improving our retail areas and achieving greater market penetration,’ he says.
He adds: ‘Duty free sales make up just fewer than 60% of retail revenue at Narita Airport and are a major sales component. Brand boutique sales have been extremely good in 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. By exploiting demand with the opening of our new retail facilities, we expect to see a continuation of strong sales growth.
‘Recent trends have also seen remarkable growth in duty free operations and we expect further growth in demand, particularly among Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean passengers. Our sales target for fiscal 2006 (June 2006 to March 2007) is around Y.12bn ($104m).’
Full-year passenger figures at Tokyo Narita show that 31.55m passengers used the airport in 2005 (+1%), with ‘foreign’ passenger numbers increasing by 3% to 8.04m. Passenger numbers are expected to be equally split between T1 and the South Terminal when the T1 renovation is complete.
There are also further retail developments planned as Sugano explained: ‘We are also expanding our retail area in the main building in Terminal 2. The attractive shopping is expected to open in Spring 2007 with duty free shops, brand boutiques, general tax free shops and food and beverage outlets, in a 2,900sq m area with a central concept.’