“Everyone can buy,” says the sign at World Duty Free Group’s Arrivals shop at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 but I wonder what percentage of inbound passengers actually will during the Olympic Games period? I arrived back from Hong Kong to T5 on Saturday and was surprised to see that the store had not been dressed
Miscellaneous
Sad-eyed loner of the (Siberian) lowlands
Why is it, I wonder, that I end up writing so many Blogs over Novosibirsk? I’m 38,000 feet up on British Airways 22 from Hong Kong to London, and after sleeping like a log for the first six hours of the flight I’m suddenly raring to go again. According to British Airways’ inflight journey map,
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Miscellaneous
Vicente wreaks his havoc
I’m about to depart Hong Kong International Airport, an airport I doubted I would ever reach earlier in the week as Typhoon Vicente wreaked havoc on flights into Hong Kong. I took a cab through rush hour traffic in Shanghai on Wednesday to Hong Qiao Airport, only to be told that my Hong Kong Airlines
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Miscellaneous
Service with a smile in Shanghai
I’ve arrived in Shanghai for the China Travel Retail Event, being run by Ink and GIS Events over the next three days. Once again I’ve established a temporary Moodie Report Bureau, this time on the 19th floor of the Marriott Shanghai City Centre with a panoramic view (above) over this enthralling city. I’m working in tandem
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Miscellaneous
Kindness in Kuma
Not a week goes by without The Moodie Report hearing about a fantastic Corporate Social Responsibility initiative involving management, staff or executives from the travel retail industry [With additional reporting by Melody Ng in Singapore]. This week, Craig McKenna, Managing Director South East Asia and the Middle East of DFS Group, sent The Moodie Report
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Miscellaneous
Mann and Madonna: the rematch
There were lights, cameras, video screens, hydraulics, flying drummers, tightrope walkers, cheerleaders, a Basque folk trio, jaw-droppingly gorgeous dancers and a gospel choir. Oh, and Madonna was there too. Coty’s Markus Stauss and Hilde Van Den Eede, with The Moodie Report’s Rebecca Mann, at Hyde Park, London Last night, courtesy of Coty Prestige (Madonna’s fragrance
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Miscellaneous
Shouldering responsibility for customer service
Keith looked like a nice man. He’d greeted me flamboyantly, with a nice “Welcome onboard” and a seemingly warm smile as I boarded the American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles and shown me to my seat. Explaining that I had an acutely painful shoulder muscle injury, I asked Keith, who seemed to be
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Miscellaneous
LAX contract the icing on the cake after a perfect week for DFS
Seven days since my last stop here, I’m back at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), en route from Hawaii back to London. A week is a long time in travel retail and since I was last here, DFS has successfully retained its duty free concession in the face of
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Miscellaneous
Face to face with an industry legend
Today I met a legend. For the 25 years that I have been covering this sector, I, like many, have held Robert ‘Bob’ Miller, the Co-Founder of DFS, in the deepest respect. His story is, quite simply, one of the most remarkable tales of business development you will ever encounter. As has been well
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Miscellaneous
Time for travel retail to nail it?
Last week I was invited to London to the Estée Lauder Companies’ Fall Preview, which provided a mightily useful sneak peek at the group’s forthcoming key launches for the autumn/winter season. (I know – autumn/winter! In the UK we’ve sent out a search party for spring and summer…) Many high-profile launches stood out, as did
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Miscellaneous
DFS prepares to celebrate at the ultimate gathering place
It’s tough being on the road. Honestly. It truly is. Here’s a picture of my laptop at my temporary Waikiki bureau on the Hawaiian island of Oahu just to show you how hard I’m working. I promise, I really, really promise I have not swapped my keyboard for a surfboard. Yet. But hey, all work and no play makes
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Miscellaneous
Heavenly Waikiki bureau opens for business
Aloha. The Moodie Report’s Waikiki bureau is up and running. I’m here to cover the 50th anniversary of DFS Hawaii, which promises to be an extraordinary occasion (more of that later in the week). Underneath me from my 8th floor room at the lovely Halekulani hotel the Pacific waves are crashing in on the golden
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Miscellaneous
Commitment to great causes at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Ball
One of the highlights of last week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival was a charity ball hosted by the retailer on Friday night at the K Club. It was a fantastic evening for a fantastic cause – Irish Autism Association – at which all of us were reminded just how lucky we are compared