Do you think the travel retail industry sometimes shoots itself in the foot? I do. And here’s a glaring example. It’s an advertisement for a cigarette brand, published in an international travel retail publication during the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Orlando. The brand is called Double Happiness. Perhaps it should have been
Miscellaneous
Concentrating hard in travel retail
It’s been an incredible week in travel retail, and a tragic one in the aviation industry. The latter must come first. The tragedy of Germanwings flight 4U9525, flown into the side of a mountain by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is almost beyond comprehension. 150 dead, including children and babies; not one body found intact. Horror. One
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Miscellaneous
Show time in Orlando as DFASS/Shilla deal steals the headlines
After a weekend of glorious Florida sunshine it’s a wet and humid day here in Orlando as the annual Duty Free Show of the Americas swings into action. I suspect all the talk at the show will revolve around The Shilla Hotel’s acquisition of a 44% stake in DFASS for US$105 million with the option
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Miscellaneous
Some special toasts for St Patrick’s Day
Today is St Patrick’s Day, a day when the Irish celebrate (and just keep on celebrating) all over the world. It’s also the birthday of Colleen (how well named she was) Morgan (ok then with a Welsh twist), The Moodie Report’s Rhodes-based Special Correspondent and a friend for over four decades. And, not least, it
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Miscellaneous
(China’s) Century duty completed – with a paneful moment
I’m back in London for the weekend for a few days before next week’s IAADFS show in Orlando post a great experience at what I considered to be an excellent China’s Century conference in Shanghai. As any conference organiser will tell you, you can’t please all of the people all of the time (hell, often
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Miscellaneous
Settling in for Century duty in Shanghai
56 floors up, this is the view from The Moodie Report’s Interim Shanghai Bureau. I’m at the Jing An Shangri-La along with a few hundred colleagues from the travel retail community, here to attend the ‘China’s Century Conference’, organised by TFWA. It’s always a pleasure to be back in this throbbing, sprawling city that (like
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Miscellaneous
Oh Captain, my Captain
Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring – Oh Captain, Walt Whitman Last week The Moodie Report bade
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Miscellaneous
Toni & Guy: A cut above at London Fashion Week
I have survived my second tour of duty at London Fashion Week (LFW) unscathed (unless you count a case of serious, possibly incurable, shoe envy). You may remember that my debut visit to the event, last September, proved somewhat draining – I just about managed to recover in time for Cannes. Nonetheless I jumped at