On 19 April some 25,000 runners will gather at the start line of the Boston Marathon – known as the ‘Holy Grail’ of long-distance running. One of those participants will be from the travel retail community – The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retailing Worldwide President Olivier Bottrie. Olivier is no stranger to the loneliness –
Events
A MOmentous MOvember result for MOtivated Mark Riches and WDF team
A few weeks back The Moodie Blog brought you news of the ‘MOvember’ fund-raising campaign to raise awareness of prostate cancer. The month of MOvember – formerly known as November – is the period when men grow MOustaches to raise funds to help research into and visibility for this terrible killer of men worldwide. WDF
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Events
Going belly up in front of your peers
There are certain critical rules to follow when you are attending a travel retail industry event in the Middle East and a belly dancer starts her routine. Unless you are a rare example of a travel retail exhibitionist, the last person on earth you want to be is the hapless guest called up by the dancer to
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Events
Paton’s prepares to go nuts as James Kfouri triumphs in Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup
The 17th Dubai Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup saw one of the most popular winners in the event’s history – James Kfouri, General Manager Sales & Marketing for Australian confectionery company Paton’s. Renowned for its famous Macadamia nuts range of chocolates, the company will also now be synonymous with sporting excellence after the Melbourne-based
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Events
It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it…
If you think it’s tough work completing a 10k fun run, then it’s clearly even tougher being one of the race marshalls. At the Miles for Smiles ‘fun run’ at the weekend in Dubai, The Moodie Blog’s exclusive sponsor, Mars International Travel Retail International Consultant Stuart Bull, was obviously finding the workload draining. Time and again
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Events
Lady in red
They were probably the best couple of one-liners heard at an industry conference in years. Having listened to Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) Vice President of Non-Aeronautical Revenues Dan Cappell extolling the merits of outsourcing duty free retailing to DFS, MEDFA conference moderator Dermot Davitt boldly asked Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports (sister company
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Events
The loneliness of the long-distance runner
It’s 32 hours since I completed the Miles for Smiles 10k ‘fun run’ and I feel like my legs have been run over by a Humvee. If I didn’t know it before, I know it now. In a 53 year-old, averagely fit man’s life, 10k goes on forever. Especially when you’ve had two hours sleep
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Events
Final countdown to Miles for Smiles
The Moodie Report has arrived in Dubai and the big day is nearly upon us. On Saturday morning the bus will arrive at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel at the ungodly hour of 6a.m. to pick up the runners in this year’s Miles for Smiles fun run and take them to the course at the
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Events
Black and blue at the San Siro
The Moodie Report Publisher was in Milan for the weekend to watch my beloved All Blacks rugby team play Italy at the magnificent San Siro Stadium. The San Siro is usually associated with football – it is the home of both AC Milan and Inter – but such is the interest in the All Blacks
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Events
Miles (and miles and miles) for Smiles
All around the travel retail world tonight, I suspect, there are some very sore people. I am one of them. The problem (but also the reward) with volunteering to compete in something like ‘Miles for Smiles’, this month’s charity run in Dubai, is that you really have to give it your best shot. And that
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Airports
Countdown to opening in Cyprus
The Moodie Report is in Cyprus, having flown to the island for the official inauguration of the New Zenon Terminal in Larnaka on Saturday. This is a major event here – in fact it’s the biggest European airport opening of 2009. The new facility includes 5,000sq m of retail space, all run by CTC-ARI Airports. ARI Director
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Events
Lots of miles – but not enough smiles
Miles for Smiles in Dubai is now just 27 days away. Training schedules have been thrown into chaos by the inevitable late nights and excess consumption of last week’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes and earlier boasts about reduced times in this second travel retail 10k ‘fun run’ event are having to be hastily revised.
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Events
Singing the (praises of) Blues in Cannes
As tastings go, they don’t get much better than a vertical sampling of Johnnie Walker Blue Label during TFWA World Exhibition. The opportunity to taste not only the original Johnnie Walker Blue Label but also King George V Limited Edition and the latest extension to the range, The John Walker (above), saw a who’s who of the