Food Accademia will highlight a number of best-selling Italian wines, fine foods and confectionery when it returns to the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes (2-6 October).

“For the duty free commercial operators, the quality and dedication of suppliers not only allows them to satisfy customer demand, but also to promote and enhance the sense of place and to mark out an individual airport as being part of the destination country experience,” said the company.

“This move towards fine dining and drinking is not confined to restaurants but is influencing the retail offer with travellers buying sophisticated F&B produce to take home as a souvenir or as a gift.”

Creating a ‘new identity’

The company believes that Italian gastronomy has the potential to create a ‘new identity’ for travel retail that reflects changing market dynamics with an emphasis on enhancing the brand and product proposition.

“Retailers are approaching negotiations with an increased interest for new-to-market brands and products in order to provide a real journey experience to more conscious and demanding travellers,” continued Food Accademia.

“In this direction, we have developed a new mix of assortment, with a greater presence of typical products, in line with the evolution of the passenger profile.

“Potential customers, thanks to technology, are more aware, also considering what can be done today with a smartphone; and we’re not just talking about millennials, but about people in general.

“We need products that have an intrinsic added value to the purchase, that offer a perceived quality; new products, certainly more recognisable by brand, express value, sensations and emotions to remember.”

The company will be exhibiting at A1, Blue Village.