Finding the Florida keys to Orlando Airport retail

While I fear I am about to be incarcerated in the South Florida version of Alcatraz every time I encounter the security staff at Orlando International Airport, I can’t say the same about the retail employees whom I found consistently friendly during a brief sojourn there last week en route to London. The airport offers

Read More

Jo Malone and new-look newsagents star at Gatwick Airport

I’ve arrived in Orlando for the annual Duty Free Show of the Americas. From Manila it was 24 hours at home and then on to Gatwick Airport to fly here for the annual IAADFS-run exhibition. I feel like a world explorer, a cross between Magellan and Columbus. My body clock tells me its approaching midnight

Read More

Coming to a coffee table near you…

Wow, that’s what I call a welcome. The Duty Free Philippines 25th anniversary team rolled out a banner greeting for The Moodie Report at the Fiesta Mall downtown duty free shopping complex in Manila yesterday. I spent an enjoyable and busy afternoon with a committee of great and dedicated people set up to work on

Read More

A butterfly takes flight

In the parlance of Facebook – ‘like’. World Duty Free Group’s new logo and corporate identity unveiled this morning, features what the company calls a “two-colour infinity icon”. The company notes: “The flexible, sweeping lines within the logo are inspired by the architecture of airport environments; whilst the rounded shapes and ‘organic’ nature of the

Read More

Culture, tradition and experience at Incheon Airport

At last week’s Trinity Forum in Seoul, Incheon International Airport Corporation President & CEO CW Lee jokingly implored all delegates to buy in his shops on their way home.  To laughter, he noted during the Opening Cocktail that all delegates’ names were known and that he would be checking to see who had bought duty

Read More

Something for everyone at Suvarnabhumi

I’d forgotten just how strong and diverse the King Power International Group retail offer at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport was. But transiting through the airport last night its vibrancy was immediately apparent. It’s a vast, sprawling retail complex, punctuated with a wide range of individual boutiques and generic duty free stores, many replicated due to the

Read More

Swift Swiss reaction by SSP

Remember my recent Blog on the lack of Swiss wine at Zürich Airport’s acclaimed Center Bar, run by SSP (named the world’s best airport bar at The Moodie Report’s inaugural Airport Food & Beverage Awards last year)? While applauding the environment and atmosphere, I bemoaned the fact that I could not order a glass of

Read More

A questionable question of authenticity

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). – Alice in Wonderland And indeed, I found some of the signage at Autogrill Lanka’s duty free stores at Colombo Bandaranaike Airport curious and then… curiouser. ‘Guaranteed 100% genuine products’ screams the signage outside

Read More

A-plus for atmosphere; Z for Zinfandel in Zürich

A quick trip to Zürich yesterday left me a few hours to experience the commercial offering at the airport, which has benefited hugely from the recent creation of a centralised security operation, complemented by revamped walkthrough Departures duty free shops run by The Nuance Group. Love them or hate them, there’s no question that walk-through

Read More

Vincenzo Bellini hits the high notes in Catania

  An airport does not have to be big to have an excellent commercial offer. A case in point is Catania-Vincenzo Bellini Airport, located south-west of Catania, the second largest city on the Italian island of Sicily. The airport’s name pays homage to 19th century opera composer Vincenzo Bellini, dubbed ‘the swan of Catania’, a

Read More

Gatwick’s good, bad and ugly

Flying to Sicily for a few days’ break before Christmas, I spent a couple of hours at Gatwick Airport North Terminal viewing its commercial proposition. As always, the Gatwick offer is a mixed bag. A curate’s egg, as they say. When it’s good, it’s very good. When it’s bad, well… First, as one would say

Read More

Nuance and Lindt unveil a very tasty treat in Zürich

Buoyed by a desire to bring immediate coverage of airport and store openings around the world, The Moodie Report’s carbon footprint has grown to Yeti-like dimensions over the past decade. Yet in all that time we have only witnessed a handful of airport store concepts which really excite, which truly differentiate, which genuinely capture a

Read More

The persistence of true champions

There can have been few more popular winners of the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup in the 19-year history of the event than this year’s men’s and women’s champions, Francis Clark (above with trophy) and Nadine Heubel (below with trophy). Clark, a Gulf-based Englishman who supplies services to the regional duty free industry, won

Read More