A strong panel debated the European market at the TR Consumer Forum.

The pre-lunch session on Day 2 at the TR Consumer Forum presented Mapping Tomorrow’s European Travellers: Dynamics and Demand, which focused on Europe’s travel landscape.

The continent’s travel retail landscape is undergoing significant change, driven by shifting mobility patterns, a diverse mix of nationalities, and rapidly evolving shopper expectations.

This session brought together a panel of six industry voices to explore how both international and intra-European travel flows are reshaping retail behaviour across key touchpoints: Julie Lassaigne, Secretary General, ETRC; Nina Kristin Gür, Vice President Retail Key Account Management, Fraport AG; Mami Sakamaki, Director SFP PMI GTR; Marcin Kiryluk, Business Development Director, Baltona; Larisa Mijatovic, Consultant, m1nd-set; and John Rimmer, Director, JCR Consulting, moderator.

Using the latest market data and behavioural insights, including in-depth research from m1nd-set and the specialist focus of ETRC, the discussion examines which traveller nationalities are emerging as the most influential spenders within the European ecosystem, alongside how their motivations, preferences, and channel behaviours are evolving.

Rising digital engagement and loyalty

Mijatovic noted that, in some locations, spends are rising, led by female shoppers and the boomer generation.

Key themes included category growth trends, the rising influence of digital engagement and loyalty, and the growing importance of cultural nuance in shaping purchasing decisions. The session showed that understanding traveller diversity is essential for retailers to optimise performance and adapt to Europe’s increasingly complex travel retail environment.

Mijatovic began by highlighting the rate and location of key traffic growth – citing Heathrow’s continuing lead position but also emphasising the significant growth at Amsterdam – and then assessed the retail behaviour of those travellers. She was concerned that lower numbers are entering the stores and buying less, but at least those who still buy are actually raising their spend, and this is led by female shoppers and the boomer generation. She showed that the experiential element is rising against the imperative of value and pricing.

Closely related to that pattern, Self-consumption grew to 58% in 2026, up from 54% in 2025, while Gifting headed in the opposite direction, declining from 23% last year to just 18% in 2026. Additionally, Self-treating as a driver of purchase saw a notable rise from 16% in 2025 to 22% in 2026.

Nina Gür (holding the mic) explained how Fraport has turned transit time into exploration using art and architecture in the new T3.

Mijatovic emphasised the role of store staff in influencing buying decisions – rising to 76% this year compared to 68% last year, and she advised that travellers need to be reached at a wider range of touchpoints – from pre-travel, especially via digital messaging, all the way to the stores. Only 26% of duty-free buyers had a clear plan to purchase beforehand; 40% were undecided, and 35% bought with no prior intention at all. With nearly three-quarters of purchasers arriving undecided, the airport environment and frontline sales staff remain the industry’s primary conversion tools, panellists agreed.

Reaching across the generations

Expanding on the traffic and behaviour themes raised by Mijatovic, Lasaigne then highlighted the stability of Europe as a supporting factor for brands and retailers and reminded the forum that generations older than Gen Z still present strong opportunities. She expressed concern at the passenger queues driven by the new Entry-Exit System (EES) regulations, which could be a significant problem in Europe’s peak summer season, and called for flexibility in the implementation of the system. She added: “We see a need for investment and revenues to cover the costs of operations at airports, which have exploded over the past decade.”

Gür added that the rollout risks putting European airports “in a bad light”, with frontline staff left to explain a confusing process to international travellers. Lasaigne then warned that the airlines, such as Ryanair, will certainly not be taking on the added costs and the industry, “so we must sit together with the different parties and work out how we convert these travellers into shoppers… if we don’t do it now, we will face even greater problems in the future. ” Sakamamki echoed that message and the need for greater cooperation.

Europe cannot rely on traffic growth alone to secure retail growth.

360-degree experience

Gür shared an energetic video presentation celebrating the depth of the “360-degree experience” created by embedding art and cultural elements with the retail space in Frankfurt’s new Gate Zero concept, developed with longstanding partner Heinemann. The strategy blended a curated, playful retail offer with the redesigned T3, where art and architecture are used deliberately to turn transit time into exploration. The initiative opened opportunities for the retail to adopt similar elements in the in-store offer and across the shopper experience within the terminal.

In this, the airport’s careful adjacencies create a subtly blended experience, avoiding the blunt demarcation of categories, and this is also complemented by the positioning of seating in the shared space. She also raised the need to ‘disrupt’ the traveller by doing “something special” that stops them in their tracks – such as a live DJ in the terminal – and engage them.

Baltona’s Kiryluk said a 25% rise in passenger numbers in Poland and growing inbound traffic had prompted a nearly €50 million refurbishment of 3,000sqm of store space to serve an increasingly international customer base. He noted a significant shift in gifting habits, including the perhaps surprising development that vodka is no longer the default souvenir purchase, overtaken by regional products (especially food, wine and other local goods), as part of a broader decline in alcohol consumption that Baltona is tracking in its stores.

Sakamaki closed by advancing on a theme mentioned earlier in the session, “curiosity leads to investigation”, and the need to make European shoppers curious not only in the store but also before they travel, for example, via a digital platform that informs travellers about their smoke-free options along their journey.