If it be your will that I speak no more, and my voice be still, as it was before, I shall speak no more.
Blog
Events
All Blacks need emergency assistance after Irish 111 call
Ireland beat the All Blacks for the first time in 111 years. Yes that’s right 111 – which also just happens to be the emergency telephone number in New Zealand. And boy did the shell-shocked men in black ever need emergency assistance.
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Airports
Gamsahamnida South Korea, Annyeongi kyeseyo
Gamsahamnida (‘Thank you’) Korea. I learn so much from your country, your culture, your people and your duty free industry each time I come here. Annyeongi kyeseyo (‘Farewell’).
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Miscellaneous
Land of the morning (afternoon and night) turmoil
Competition is so tough, the regulators so fierce, the battle for Chinese tourists so intense, that a Korean duty free equivalent of the Charles Darwin-inspired ‘Survival of the fittest’ adage could surely be coined.
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Events
Sunrise marks a new dawn in Chinese travel retail
Here is a bricks and mortar travel retailer realising not only that it must reinvent itself in a world increasingly dominated by e-commerce (particularly in China) but having the courage and vision to do it on its own terms.
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Travel
‘Officially amazing’ at Shinsegae Duty Free Centum City
A plaque describing the department store’s status as the world’s biggest says ‘Officially amazing’. That strikes me as a pretty good way of summing up the whole complex.
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Airports
Emotion and engagement at Taoyuan International
Classic, colourful, quirky: we’ve championed the virtues of Taiwan Taoyuan International before, but a visit here this week reminds me just what a compelling experience this great airport can be. I’m here on a short trip – little more than 48 hours – to attend the official opening of The Macallan’s striking new store in
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People
The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die
Through the night all was still, as though death was satisfied with the slaughter…
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Miscellaneous
Heathrow sparkles as night-time falls on the Neponset
Wine is a category that demands effort, otherwise why should travellers bother? At Heathrow, Champagne shows plenty of fizz, but table wine falls a little flat.
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People
Rest in peace Vivian Raven
Vivian was in every way the father of the travel retail publishing industry
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Quirky
The sweetest of views, one of astronomical proportions
There’s nothing quite like the breathtaking view of the Milky Way from the surface of Mars.
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People
I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now
Like countless journalists and writers down the years I often reach for a Dylan quote to embellish a story, knowing full well that one’s own words will be made to look puny, insufficient, even banal in comparison.
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Events
Adopting a can do attitude in Cannes
It might get tiring but what a venue, what hospitality and what memories. Whenever we complain about this arduous week we should remember how blessed we are.