“Finding an exit strategy is almost always the most difficult part of anti-government mobilisation, and it remains unclear how the spiral of violence can be halted now.”
People
A lament for VG Siddhartha
None of us know, can even begin to comprehend, the pressures or despair which drove that person to a decision so blithely dismissed as cowardly and yet one that requires the ultimate courage.
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Travel
Buoyant in Beijing, sleepless over Siberia
In both culinary and commercial terms there are plenty of exciting options on the menu.
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Events
Meeting the maestro in Moscow
My stay in the Russian capital has been about as good as it gets. Except.. it is about to get better.
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Airports
Celebrating a red-letter day with CDF-Sunrise
This cluster of stand-alone beauty boutiques is a first for travel retail in the Asia Pacific region.
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Events
Bringing it all back home post-Orlando
I’ve arrived home in London after a crazy but wonderful four weeks on the road. Hong Kong, Hainan Island, Seoul, Incheon, London (48 hours), Reykjavik, London (overnight), Orlando. I think my neighbours believed I was a burglar.
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Miscellaneous
How Kap Lee intends to create ‘lifetime value’ at Lotte Duty Free
Many duty free executives from around the world come here just to view what amounts to a vast, throbbing human laboratory. Lotte Duty Free’s advantage is that it monitors that laboratory each and every day.
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Miscellaneous
There will be rain, there will be shine in Korean duty free
Brands’ long-held selective distribution principles have been scattered in the Korean winds – there’s certainly nothing selective about what amounts to a mass redistribution market, a little China of duty free.
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Events
Korean duty free may be yummy but don’t expect any golden eggs
Just as the Chinese government is seeking to crack down on, perhaps eliminate, daigou trading, there is the likelihood of more duty free licences here. Really? If that happens, Korea’s duty free chickens will have come home to roost. But they won’t be laying any golden eggs.
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Miscellaneous
The neighs have it, the neighs have it
Like the distinctly shady looking horse behind me in the BA lounge, I suppose it will be a case of “the neighs have it, the neighs have it.”
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Airports
From Cannabis oil to customised watches to four-letter words: Welcome to a brave Nous world
How was it that I felt confident enough to take my cannabis oil home? Simple. It’s been stripped of the principal psychoactive constituent (the THC) and is every bit as legal as carrying a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black or 200 Marlboro Lites.
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Events
Out alone in the Atplastic Ocean
As a sector, travel retail is a serial offender. One that is contributing every day to the Atlantic turning into the Atplastic.
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Miscellaneous
Filipino flair and Chinese spice: Viewing travel retail through a different prism
People often ask me where I see the next big opportunity in travel retail. Which market? Which consumers? Which categories? Three days in the Philippines has helped shape my answers. Except I wouldn’t say ‘next’ opportunity. It’s here. It’s now. It’s happening.