Julián Díaz says Dufry hopes to transform the retail experience on cruise ships within a 12-month period in what he describes as a ‘future investment’ to ‘change the scope of shops’ onboard cruise ships [see below video].

When TRBusiness interviewed the Dufry CEO last month he confirmed that the company has been awarded retail contracts onboard 29 ships to date, of which Dufry has started operations on around 15.

“The way that we understand this business is that it is a future investment in a channel that we believe will have a significant growth,” he told TRBusiness.

RE-ENGINEERING THE EXPERIENCE

Díaz makes it clear that Dufry is not interested in recreating shopping environments of the past: “The point here is how we improve the performance [of the shops]…I believe, and this is one of our main targets, is that we need to change the scope of the things we are doing from the business-oriented point of view.

“What I mean is to open a shop on a ship is very simple. But I think we need to be like in the airport. We need to change the scope of the shops. The shops should be different, more alive, should make more contact with passengers. And we need to create a more flexible assortment that will be adapted depending on the routes and the type of passenger.”

This is a model he believes Dufry has already developed and plans to finalise within the next 12 months…To find out more about Dufry’s plans for the cruise channel watch the video.

In the below video, Díaz also offers his opinion on the sustainability of growth in the number of Chinese travellers and the SPP. In addition he talks about potential border business in Brazil and Russia along with Dufry’s vision of retail for the future.