TRBusiness is delighted to announce that the consumer-voted 2021 Global Travel Retail Awards ceremony will now be hosted during the inaugural Travel Retail Consumer Forum (20-22 September). 

The ceremony, initially scheduled to take place in Cannes during the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference, will be held during the Travel Retail Consumer Forum networking dinner at 7pm on 21 September at the prestigious Hilton London Paddington Hotel.

All registered delegates will gain complimentary access to the awards ceremony as part of the dinner.

FINALISTS TO BE REVEALED…

All Travel Retail Awards finalists are encouraged to book their delegate place at the conference. The details of the finalists will be announced during the week commencing 16 August on TRBusiness.com.The move to associate the two events was a ‘natural and logical decision’, according to the Owners and Directors at both m1nd-set (Peter Mohn, pictured below) and TRBusiness (Nigel Hardy and Janice Hook) who are jointly organising the Travel Retail Consumer Forum.

“Both the awards and the forum are focused 100% on the travelling consumer,” they said. “The awards entries are voted on solely by consumers; the only global travel retail event where consumers judge the nominations and the TR Consumer Forum which, as the name implies, is centred around the travelling consumer and shopper behaviour.

“The forum will reveal invaluable consumer insights across all the various themes that will be discussed during the two-day event.

“The two consumer-focused events sit naturally together as they both celebrate and legitimise the all-important consumer.

“We are extremely proud to be able to offer our partners and the wider travel industry this vital service, especially at a time when the impact of global events on the consumer is without precedent.”

“It has never been more important to understand how shoppers are behaving differently and how their aspirations, needs and expectations have changed and continue to evolve,” m1nd-set and TRBusiness’ Owners and Directors added.

The conference agenda, which can be found on the Agenda page of the TR Consumer Forum event website, will feature a strong line-up of senior industry executives and experts, all of whom will be sharing how they are approaching the consumer in the new post-pandemic reality within retail and travel retail. Details of the full speaker line-up will be announced soon.

FRANCE AND OTHER COUNTRIES ENJOY QUARANTINE-FREE ARRIVAL

As reported, the event has received a significant boost with the lifting of restrictions for double-vaccinated travellers from the US and EU.

The changes announced last week and effective from 4am Sunday 8 August mean travellers from France will no longer have to quarantine on arrival in the UK as France has moved to the Amber list, along with Bahrain, Qatar, India and the UAE. Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway have moved to the Green list.

The inaugural Travel Retail Consumer Forum, now complemented by the annual Travel Retail Awards ceremony, is drawing support from an increasingly long list of major airport and retail operators with Dufry, IDFS Morocco and Vienna Airport the latest companies to sign up for the event, as reported earlier this week.

Despite the increasingly positive outlook for international travel to and from the UK going forward, the organisers are retaining full flexibility for all delegates and supporting companies.

In the unlikely event that the Travel Retail Consumer Forum is postponed, the registration fee will be automatically carried over to permit entry to the rescheduled event. Alternatively, a full refund is available.

The offer of a refund will also be extended to those with country-level travel restrictions in place at the time the event is due to take place.

For more information on the programme and for speaking opportunities, please contact [email protected].

For more information about sponsoring these networking events, as well as other sponsorship opportunities, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]