Sometimes life is stranger than fiction… Today, for the first time since I was a young student drinking at my local pub in Christchurch, New Zealand, I was asked for proof of age after ordering alcohol. I kid you not. This Blog comes to you from Orlando Airport, where, having arrived early to ensure I
Miscellaneous
Vehicles of distribution
If you want to get ahead, get a bus. That, at least, is the belief of two major beauty brands – Nivea and Elemis – who are literally taking their product to the people, via the Nivea Skin Science Express and the Elemis Spa Bus, respectively. It’s a channel of distribution that puts a whole
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Events
A testament to global warming as Orlando show begins
The Moodie Report is in Orlando for the annual Duty Free Show of the Americas, run by the ever-impressive IAADFS. After a few years in Fort Lauderdale, the exhibition has returned to its long-time home, driven by a desire to have all delegates under one roof. And what a roof it is – the Marriott
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Events
The Compassionate Club
The Consortium Club has been putting smiles on people’s faces again – theirs, mine and, most important of all, at least 15 children’s. As regular readers of The Moodie Blog will know, The Consortium Club is a group of UK travel retail suppliers, retailers and buyers who meet regularly to discuss and advance industry issues
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Airports
Hyderabad hits new heights
It is July 2007 and The Moodie Report is in Hyderabad to view construction work at the city’s new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. It is just eight months from opening and the whole facility is a giant construction site. Some 6,000 workers are crawling over the site like ants, working feverishly day and night to ensure the
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Miscellaneous
Meet Ms Green
Meet Ms Green. She’s the latest addition to the M&M’s family (long-time sponsors of this Blog) and she’ll be making her debut across various pages of The Moodie Report in coming weeks. And what better time to make it than on the eve of the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Orlando, Florida? The
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Events
The Englishman who walked (backwards) up a mountain
Meet ‘Captain’ Bob. The Moodie Report may bear the name of its Founder and Publisher but Chief Operating Officer Bob Wilby is actually the guy who keeps it all together. He’s been a constant at The Moodie Report since its early days, proving the perfect steady foil to the thoroughly disorganised traits of the Founder.
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Miscellaneous
Contortions of a window cleaner
You can picture the scene. The Moodie Report has once again established a temporary foreign bureau – this time on the 5th floor of the Leela Kempinski hotel in Gurgaon, just outside New Delhi. I’ve set up office to produce our weekly edition of The Moodie Report 7 Days before I fly home after attending
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Events
DFNI Charity Ball chooses a good cause
Each year for the past decade and a half the DFNI Charity Ball in London has chosen and helped a very good cause. Down the years the event has raised very large sums for a numer of excellent and often unsung charities. This year’s beneficiary is N/a’an ku sê Lifeline Clinic in Namibia. It was
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Airports
‘The media is no longer on it – Haiti needs us’
[Picture: Nancy Roc] Sometimes comment is unnecessary. This Blog will be one of my shortest. Last night I received a note from Alexandra Bottrie, wife of The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retailing Worldwide President Olivier Bottrie. Alexandra is from Haiti. Though her family are safe and well after the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, she has
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Miscellaneous
Rugby fans show support for Hand in Hand for Haiti
In rugby terms, there wasn’t much to celebrate on Saturday for anyone wearing red, as England scrabbled to a lucky, last-gasp win over an injury-depleted Wales at Twickenham. Scorpio Distributors Group Managing Director Stuart McGuire generously hosted a fabulous day (exception: the result) for assorted industry colleagues, and this journalist was lucky enough to be
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People
Terminal rudeness at T5 as Phil goes down with trolley fever
It’s early morning at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 and it’s a pleasure to step out of the confines of my nine-hour flight from Delhi into the modern spaciousness of London’s flagship terminal. I find a trolley easily and head down towards my well-signed baggage belt. It’s a relief to put my bulging, overloaded briefcase
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Airports
Out with the old and in with the new at Delhi airport
Indira Gandhi International Airport at 2p.m in the morning is a fascinating place. There’s good, bad and (very) indifferent here, underling the challenge facing GMR and Delhi International Airport Group in creating a world-class airport at the new Terminal 3, slated to open in June. Airports are not just about infrastructure or facilities. The customer