It’s a dank, misty morning as we drive down through Port-au-Prince on our way to the domestic airport terminal to catch an early flight to the town of Jacmel. Our route takes us past countless crushed buildings; sombre, grey heaps of rubble, some with undiscovered bodies still buried deep beneath. A simple white sheet hanging
Blog
Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a city of ruins
Driving through the downtown area of Port-au-Prince is like arriving in a city after an apocalypse. Whatever you’ve seen on CNN, this is a hundred times worse. An estimated 80% of buildings in the heart of the capital’s downtown area were destroyed by the January 12 earthquake. Piles and piles of rubble line the streets
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Miscellaneous
Saving lives with lipstick
There were paparazzi blocking the pavement hours before the event began. Inside there were buff boys in tight pink T-shirts serving drinks. There was supermodel Agyness Deyn, working combat chic, flanked by her designer sidekick Henry Holland. Hell, there was even Dancing On Ice judge Jason Gardiner. It could only be a MAC event… But
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Miscellaneous
Bound for Port-au-Prince
I’m on my way to Haiti, via an overnight stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Queens Hotel at New York JFK Airport before the early morning flight down to Port-au-Prince in the morning. I have to say that arriving at New York JFK Terminal 7 (the British Airways terminal) was one of the easiest and
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Airports
Sign of the times
It’s good to see first-hand evidence of our industry’s highly efficient lobby. Travelling through Orlando Airport last week en route to London, I visited the Alpha duty and tax free store, a nice, tidy, accessible outlet. The constraints that US airport retailers have to face, though, were plain to see. There’s the painful process of
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Miscellaneous
Scrum down, but Ireland finish on the up
Some of travel retail’s finest (their description) athletes were determined on Saturday that they would not be found wanting, should their countries ever come calling. In the build-up to the eagerly awaited Six Nations rugby clash between England and Ireland at Twickenham, Ireland’s Liam Flood and Dermot Davitt (left, representing the Aer Rianta International and
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Airports
A question of age
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
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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.