At the MEADFA press conference during the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes. 

Members of the duty free and travel retail (DF&TR) industry are convening in Dubai for the 2025 MEADFA Conference in November. The association’s President, Abdeslam Agzoul, sets the scene or a dynamic three days of insights and debate…

The 2025 MEADFA Conference, which is taking place from 9-11 November at InterContinental Dubai Festival City, promises a programme designed to challenge, inspire and connect stakeholders in the region and beyond. From the powerhouse panel featuring Avolta’s Abdeslam Agzoul, ARI’s Nuno Amaral, Africa Travel Retail’s Chichi Maponya, Lagardère Travel Retail’s Vincent Romet and Gebr. Heinemann’s Bernard Schlafstein, who will discuss ‘Leading Through Change’, to the programme’s final ‘Travel Takeaway’ session led by IATA’s Martina Bednarikova, it’s set to be a compelling few days of knowledge sharing and networking.

Abdeslam Agzoul delivered his inaugural update as President, at a dedicated MEADFA press conference which took place during the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, sharing the association’s view on the key dynamics on the radar and the outlook for the future.

“As you know, this is my first time to address you as President of MEADFA – it’s also, I would I feel, appropriate to begin by paying a special tribute to my predecessor, Sherif Toulan at IDF, who has represented MEADFA with determination,  a lot of initiatives, creativity and vision. Thank you very much Sherif for the time you spent as Chairman of MEADFA and your contribution. I personally feel very happy and lucky to still [be able to] draw on Sherif’s experience as a Board Member. We feel honoured to have him.”

Agzoul also praised the work and positive impact to Rob [Marriott] who, as MEADFA stated in a June announcement, resigned from his role as CEO of Aer Rianta International Middle East (ARIME) and, subsequently, from his position as MEADFA President, in accordance with the Association’s statutes. At the association’s Board Meeting held on 10 June, Agzoul was elected President (previously Vice President) and Chichi Maponya was elected Vice President, to serve for the remainder of the 2025–2027 term.

Caption for image top right: L-R: Abdeslam Agzoul, President, MEADFA and CEO Middle East & Africa, Avolta; Chichi Maponya; VP, MEADFA and Director, Africa Travel Retail; Dr. Munif Mohammed, Board Member and head of the MEADFA Sustainability Committee and CEO, Lagardère Travel Retail Middle East; and Nuno Amaral, Board Member, MEADFA and CEO Aer Rianta International Middle East (AIRME) and Global Chief Operating Officer.

MEADFA President Abdeslam Agzoul.

Turning to the road ahead, Agzoul commented: “In many aspects, this is an extremely exciting time for the industry. I will start with the infrastructure, which is the base of our growth. The Al Maktoum [International Airport] project is set to revolutionise the industry – not only in the UAE but, I would say, in the region. It’s an airport that is set to receive and handle 260 million passengers [per year], set to open in 2032. This is a sign also that even for the biggest hub, which is Dubai [DXB once again topped the ACI Word busiest airport ranking for international passengers in 2024 – Ed], there is a need for increasing the infrastructure.

“For their neighbour, Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 is a vision and a strategy that has many strands of growth and one of them is tourism – and travel retail has been feeding from that. King Salman International Airport will also be a major investment and major project that should increase the capacity of passengers in Saudi Arabia and in the region, but also is set to bring opportunities and a lot of projects and ideas in our sector, in travel retail.

“And also in Saudi Arabia, we heard about the creation of Al Waha – the first Saudi Arabian duty-free company. It’s also a sign from the government of Saudi Arabia to give to travel retail its right place in the travel and tourism eco-system.

“In Egypt, we also had some news about the privatisation, or the strategic partnership with the private sector, for 11 airports, one of them is Hurghada International Airport, the second busiest airport in Egypt. This would create new opportunities for the industry.”

Looking to Africa, Agzoul, referenced Morocco’s Airports 2030 Strategy, which aims to modernise airport infrastructure and enhance the passenger experience – a timely development considering Morocco is co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

“This will be done through renovation and expansion of different airports – Marrakech, Tangier and Rabat – but also the creation of the new Terminal 4 in Casablanca that will really create the ground for the qualitative improvement and that’s what the Moroccan authority wants.”

Other projects in Africa of note are the new airport by Ethiopian Airlines [Ethiopian Airlines Group inaugurated its airport project at Yabello in August – Ed], and there other examples in Congo, Tanzania and also in Kenya. So from an infrastructure point of view, we are in good shape and in the right time, I would say, for the industry.”

Looking to the future, the self-confessed football fan highlights the MEA’s pulling power for big tournaments.

“From 2020 to 2034, our region is set to host three out of four FIFA World Cups – Qatar [2022], Morocco 2030 and most probably Saudi Arabia in 2034,” he said. “So there is infrastructure, also events and exhibitions in sport and other sectors that will again put our region in the centre of the tourism and travel retail – and obviously travel retail is an important part of this ecosystem.”

He pointed to Generation research, which shows DF&TR revenues growing, however, he added that “our region is also a prisoner of its geography”.

“The geopolitical matters affect the region and obviously the travel in general,” he said. “We have seen this year that the conflict in the Middle East, but also in Africa we have different tensions in different regions. Having said that, we can say that even with geopolitical problems the region is positive in terms of numbers of airport passengers. So we can say the word we like to say: we are resilient. By numbers and also by the behaviour of the passengers.”

He reminded attendees that MEADFA’s role is to support members in capturing growth and mitigating the impact of geopolitical external factors.

“Our target for the coming years is to be the home of all the travel retail, travel experience ecosystem,” he stressed.

Abdeslam Agzoul is confident that the MEADFA Conference 2025 will break to 600-attendee mark. 

Progress on advocacy efforts was also a talking point, including the association’s progress on ESG through the support of Dr. Munif Mohammed, who is spearheading the MEADFA Charter for ESG Action. As Mohammed updated, this legal document has been reviewed by the Board and finalised and is now being rolled out.

“The process for that is for the members of the Board to initially sign the charter,” he said. ‘Then we will request for the rest of the 72 members to hopefully sign up.”

On the topic, he continued: “One thing that is lacking is we are not working together. We are all having our own programmes – we are all pushing the same direction but not working together. And I think this particular issue requires all members, brands, airports and retailers to work together to try and move the agenda more. So [it’s a case of] how do we address the global challenges and how do we integrate [this] into our day-to-day life.”

He added it’s a change that will require “careful thought” by each individual organisation, but that he believes everybody is committed to doing so.

The 2025 MEADFA Conference is taking place from 9-11 November at InterContinental Dubai Festival City.

At the MEADFA Conference, sessions on Saudi Arabia, India (which Agzoul pointed out is a key market for the MEA ecosystem due to its population and demography), and Africa are among the key focus areas.

“We are very happy to come back again to Dubai – our spiritual home where everything started some years ago,” he summarised.

At the time, registrations were tracking at around 350 participants and Agzoul is expects the event to smash last year’s attendance record adding: “We are very confident that we can beat 600 participants.”

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