Lagardère Travel Retail has indicated a widened interest in concession bid opportunities across Africa – including potentially in South Africa – as its trading activities ramp up on the continent. 

As reported, the company is forging ahead with openings across Senegal’s motorway and rail network as it moves to entrench its position in West Africa where it also operates in The Gambia and Mauritania. The Paris-based travel retailer also has operations in Gabon and Tanzania.

As part of a broad sweeping conversation covering different geographies, channels and business verticals, Rasmussen updates on the company’s joint ventures with the likes of Australian travel retailer AWPL, Lima Airport Partners in Peru at Jorge-Chávez International Airport, and with JD.com and CNSC in Asia.

While Rasmussen acknowledges that Chinese international travellers will begin to travel again, he questioned the speed of that return.

“I’m not overly optimistic for 2023, but we’ve hedged this by having a significant and strong presence in domestic airports in China and in Hainan,” he told TRBusiness. “The Chinese will continue to spend and there is enough of them to spend both locally or internationally.”

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