A statement appearance at this year’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference (2-6 October) in Cannes has added fresh impetus to EssilorLuxottica’s vision and commitment to the travel retail sunglasses category.

During the industry’s summit last month, which as reported gathered around 6,000 visitors, EssilorLuxottica took the opportunity to spotlight its brand innovations via its interactive booth.

Visitors were welcomed to its portfolio of global brands, including Ray-Ban Stories, Oakley, Prada, Persol and Costa.

Alongside VR experiences, EssilorLuxottica’s booth showcased the ‘Smart Shopper’ application, which enables consumers to virtually try on sunglasses; and Leonardo, a digital training platform for customers and in-store staff.

The booth’s digital highlight was a section dedicated to Ray-Ban Stories, the new smart glasses collaboration between EssilorLuxottica and Meta.

This enables consumers to capture photos and videos and listen to audio through their sunglasses.

EssilorLuxottica debuted Ray-Ban Stories in travel retail in July this year with Dufry via a dedicated activation at Heathrow Airport.

Meanwhile, EssilorLuxottica’s five pillars are: ‘Eyes On Carbon’, focused on decreasing the company’s carbon footprint; ‘Eyes On World Sight’, underlying the commitment to eliminating poor vision by 2050; ‘Eyes On Circularity’, highlighting the company’s efforts to achieving circularity through the full product value chain reduction of its impact on the planet; ‘Eyes on Inclusion’, centred on the safe and inclusive working environment and diversity and inclusion efforts; and ‘Eyes on Ethics’, focused on ethical business standards to create shared value with stakeholders.

Alessio Crivelli, Global Travel Retail Director at EssilorLuxottica, said: “Innovation is at the heart of EssilorLuxottica’s growth story. We are excited to bring these innovations to the travel retail channel to stimulate renewed growth for the sunglasses category.”