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These words are unforgivably overdue. But better, as they say, late than never. They were prompted by a chance meeting with the irrepressible Sandro Bottega (above) at the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale last week, That encounter reminded me of one of the industry’s most poignant announcements of recent times when Italian

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The Moodie Report always supports ACI Europe’s annual Trading Conferece – at this year’s event in Porto, Portugal, Deputy Publisher Dermot Davitt will be moderating a session – but we think the choice of keynote speaker is unwise in the extreme. I’m talking about BJ Cunningham, creator of Death Cigarettes, the controversial tobacco house that made

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Undoubtedly the most welcome of all the thousands of visitors to this year’s Duty Free Show of the Americas is Paul Pasternak (top left), part of the great husband and wife (Lois, above) team that runs Travel Markets Insider in the US. We have long had much respect for the quality and integrity of ‘Insider‘

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The Moodie Blog is in Fort Lauderdale for the annual Duty Free Show of the Americas – the last one, as it transpires, to be held here. Next year the show returns to its long-time home, Orlando – a wholly pragmatic move by organisers, the International Association of Airport Duty Free Stores (IAADFS). One of

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If there’s one place to be other than Ireland on St Patrick’s Day it has to be New York. This city celebrates its Irish roots like no other. The whole place is a swathe of green and a giant party that began early this morning is set to continue into the wee small hours of tomorrow.

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The Moodie Report is in New York. But for a long time on Sunday night that was in name only. Entering this great city via Newark Liberty Airport is ready-made confirmation that elements of the airport community still treat their passengers (who are customers, remember) as cattle. My heart sank as I entered the check-in

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Plenty of travel retailers talk the talk about ‘Trinity’ principles – i.e. greater co-operation between industry stakeholders to the benefit of the travelling consumer. But few truly walk the walk like CTC-ARI Airports, the joint venture between CTC (Cyprus Trading Company) and Aer Rianta International–Middle East (ARI-ME), which manages the commercial operations at Larnaca and

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Sometimes the innate, immense generosity and goodwill of this industry almost overwhelms you. On Tuesday I was asked to attend a meeting in London of the Consortium Travel Retail Club, a grouping of executives active in the UK travel retail sector. Between the members present, there would probably have been a couple of centuries of industry experience,

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The Moodie Report sees many retailer promotions during the course of a year. One of the best, consistently, in recent years has been Bahrain Duty Free’s annual campaign linked to the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix, first hosted in 2004.  That year Bahrain Duty Free won a well-deserved ‘Frontier’ award for ‘Best Marketing Campaign by a Retailer’ after launching

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Last Friday night may have been a bleak occasion for followers of Welsh rugby as their 2009 Grand Slam dreams were crushed by the French at the Stades de France in Paris. But at least the country’s sporting reputation was proudly upheld by one of travel retail’s most popular figures (and proudest Welshmen) – Alan Edwards, Group

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