The International Association of Airport and Duty Free Stores (IAADFS) is to subscribe to the m1nd-set Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S) recovery monitor, a complimentary service to all trade associations.

As reported, Latin American Association ASUTIL was the first regional association to adopt the monitor and share the insights with its members.

Data is collated within the B1S tool which combines data with shopper insights to provide a holistic overview of current and forecast shopper behaviour by region, country and airport.

The complimentary quarterly monitor reports provide association members with a summary of the key traffic and relevant shopper trends for the top nationalities travelling through their respective regions.

In the Q1 report for IAADFS, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, m1nd-set reveals that international departures from the region fell by more than 74.9% between 2019 and 2020. This represents a drop from 165 million passengers to 41 million last year in North America.

‘CONSISTENTLY ROBUST’ RECOVERY

Over in Central America and the Caribbean, the decline was moderately less steep. Traffic fell by 68% from 116 million to 37 million passengers. The recovery will be consistently robust across both regions, with international departures growing by 63% and 61% in 2021 and 2022 respectively in North America, and 58% and 57% during each year respectively in Central America and the Caribbean.

Pre-Covid-19 levels will be reached by 2023 in Central America and the Caribbean, with international passengers surpassing the 2019 level by more than 5 million (121.4 million in 2023 versus 115.6 million in 2019).

In North America, however, 2023 international departures will still fall more than 20 million short of the 165 million international departures recorded in 2019.

The top-four travelling nationalities from North America, according to m1nd-set’s B1S are from the US, Canada, the UK and Mexico, with the top-10 airport destinations from the region all within the United States and Canada pre-and post-Covid-19.

From Central America and the Caribbean, the US, Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica comprise the top-four markets for outbound traveller nationalities. Intra-regional flights topped the charts when looking at international airport destinations from the region pre-Covid-19, while a number of South American airports emerge among the top-10 airports in the post-Covid-19 traffic forecasts.

Looking at the post-Covid-19 travel and shopping behaviour intentions across North America, less than a quarter of travellers from the region say they plan to travel again immediately after restrictions are lifted.

In addition, 57% plan to shop more online than they did prior to Covid-19, while more than a third (36%) will spend additional time planning their next international trip.

Regarding the interaction with staff in airport shops, just less than half (49%) of shoppers say they will interact with sales staff without being concerned about taking precautions. More than six out of 10 shoppers indicate they will try and test products again in the stores as usual.

In Central America and the Caribbean, 63% of travellers plan to travel again within the first six months after travel restrictions are lifted, but just over one third plan to reduce travel for business and leisure post-Covid-19.

There is significantly less concern about interacting with store staff among travellers from the region compared to North America. This is because two thirds of travellers from Central America and the Caribbean will engage with staff, albeit taking precautions such as wearing a mask.

Peter Mohn, CEO, m1nd-set commented: “We’re delighted that IAADFS has joined their partner association ASUTIL in subscribing to this quarterly recovery monitor. It demonstrates their desire to support association members who are striving to better understand the market potential as the global aviation sector emerges from the pandemic-inflicted crisis.

“The data we share here on the various travel and shopping behavioural changes represents a considerable portion of the insights contained within B1S. Association members can of course obtain greater depth and detail for each specific market and nationality on an ad-hoc basis, however.”

Michael Payne, IAADFS President & CEO added: “Access to key traffic trends and behaviour information is going to be vital to all our members. To have this data provided through this partnership on a complimentary basis from m1nd-set, for Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, is very valuable to our members and highly appreciated.”