Hot Shop stocks brands including Sol de Janeiro, Summer Fridays, Erborian and CeraVe.

ARI has unveiled a new beauty and lifestyle retail concept at Larnaca International Airport, positioning the space as a live testing ground for emerging brands, trend-led products and evolving consumer behaviours.

Called Hot Shop, the permanent concept has been introduced within Cyprus Duty Free and is designed to bring greater agility to travel retail by allowing ARI to trial new brands, retail formats and category trends in a real airport environment. The company plans to use insights gained from the pilot to inform future rollouts across its wider network, with Dublin and Montreal airports already identified as potential locations.

The concept reflects growing demand for more curated, discovery-led retail experiences, particularly within the beauty category, where social media influence, fast-moving trends and digitally native brands continue to reshape consumer expectations.

Hot Shop launches with a diverse mix of beauty, skincare and fragrance brands, including Sol de Janeiro, Summer Fridays, Erborian, CeraVe, Mario Badescu, Morphe, Nudestix, Rodial, Isle of Paradise and Lattafa. The assortment has been curated to reflect the increasing popularity of niche fragrance, accessible luxury and social-first beauty brands among younger travellers.

According to ARI, the concept has been designed to offer greater flexibility than traditional airport retail formats, enabling faster brand rotation, more responsive activations and ongoing experimentation with new merchandising and storytelling approaches.

“The Hot Shop is category-led and allows brands the chance to express their identity,” said Cyprus Airports Duty Free General Manager Andrew Baker. “We control the pace, we view how successful brands are and we can change them in and out as trends change. We will learn lessons and put those into practice as we go, and these can also aid other stores in the ARI network. The travel retail business is always changing and this is how we can react to that rapid change in an agile way.”

From L-R: Cyprus Airports Duty Free Beauty Buying Administrator, Olena Burko; Cyprus Airports Duty Free, Buyer – Beauty, Andri Tsoulli; ARI Deputy Global Buying Manager – Beauty, George Charalambous; Cyprus Airports Duty Free – Beauty Buying Administrator, Olga Panagiotou at the ribbon cutting. 

“Hot Shop reflects the pace at which the beauty category is evolving and the growing opportunity for travel retail to act as a launch platform for emerging and digitally native brands,” added ARI Global Head of Beauty Deirdre Devaney. “What makes the concept particularly exciting for us is its flexibility. It allows us to test new ideas, respond more quickly to trends and create a more curated retail experience that evolves over time.

“In many ways, Hot Shop operates as a live retail laboratory, helping us better understand what resonates with today’s traveller while shaping how future concepts may develop across the ARI estate.”

The initiative has also been welcomed by airport operator Hermes Airports, which sees the concept as a way of strengthening Larnaca Airport’s appeal to younger passengers and enhancing the overall passenger experience.

The brands have been curated to reflect the increasing popularity of niche fragrance, accessible luxury and social-first beauty brands among younger travellers.

Hermes Airports Commercial & Business Development Manager George Sergiou said: “The Hot Shop brings a fresh and contemporary approach to airport retail, targeting a new and younger age group while creating a vibrant buzz through exclusive products available on the island.”

The concept officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 19 May and marks another step in ARI’s efforts to develop more flexible and experience-led retail environments across its global network.