One of the first of our readers to take up the invitation to create ‘Travel Retail’s 5,000 Smiles’* was Phil Burdekin, our trusty (and, given The Moodie Report’s travel schedule) overworked travel consultant at Flight Centre in London. Phil read about the ‘Turning Tears into Smiles’ dinner in Hong Kong to raise funds for leading
Events
Letter from the Editor: It’s time to get up and go… again
Somehow we made it to the end of the year. The toughest, yet most exhilirating 12 months in our short five-year history. So many flights, so many places, so many stories. Who the heck came up with the original idea of a weekly e-newsletter and a daily website, I ask myself? Was he mad? I put the
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Events
Miller magic confirms Blog bookmaker’s optimism
The Moodie Blog has decided to launch a bookmakers’ division after a Nostradamus-like prediction of the results of the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup, which concluded on Monday. As exclusively predicted by The Moodie Blogmakers (as the division is to be known) husband and wife team Art and Nancy Miller topped the respective international golfing fields at
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Sizing up the odds at the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup
Dubai, Saturday. Tension is rising in the final countdown to golf’s fifth ‘major’ – the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup, which tees off later today at the Four Seasons Golf Club in the heart of Dubai Festival City. The 36-hole tournament concludes the following day at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. Once again the
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Events
The Art of Antiquitease
How do you follow a PA by Sean John, flanked by a buxom bevy of lingerie-clad lovelies posing on a podium? With MAC Antiquitease, of course. The Estee Lauder Companies’ traditional Monday night cocktail evening in Cannes needed to go some to top last year’s celebrity-studded bash – but that’s exactly what it did. (Real)
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Events
Reflections on TFWA World Exhibition 2007
Now the carnival is over… TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, the glittering annual extravaganza of the duty free and travel retail industries, drew to a muted close on Friday with a quieter than usual last day due to the Air France strike that hastened the exits of many overseas delegates. The ‘breakdown’ of a trade
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Events
A world-class Premier in Cannes
Of all the industry ‘Oscars’ handed out at the annual Frontier Awards in Cannes last night, none was more popular with the audience than that received by Premier Portfolio. The UK company, owned by Andrew Webster (pictured right) and Kevin Walsh (second from right), has thrived in recent years thanks to a combination of innovative
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Events
One giant leap for mankind
And so it begins. TFWA World Exhibition, the industry’s glamour event, officially kicks off in Cannes today with this morning’s conference, featuring one of the biggest names ever to grace the event. That’s American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and forever remembered for his words “That’s one small step
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Real value from Travel Value
“It’s sunny, it’s freezing, let’s get going.” The words were those of the one and only Harry Diehl as the annual Travel Value Golf Cup got under way in Cannes on Sunday at the Cannes Mandelieu and Riviera golf courses. The gale of the previous day had blown away, taking more than a few trees
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Free of Duty at last as Rugby World Cup final beckons – in Cannes
What a final it will be. The strength and all round talents of African Pride Wines of South Africa versus the surprise package of the tournament, Scorpio Distributors of England. Yes the Rugby World Cup comes to a thrilling conclusion in France on Saturday night and the Final has attracted a sell-out audience. No, we’re
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Two great reasons to smile
Has any charity anywhere had better ambassadors than those who represented The Smile Train at the ‘Turning Tears into Smiles’ charity dinner in Hong Kong on 5 October? I’m referring to Dr Shell Xue, Chief Project Officer of The Smile Train China, and Wang Li, a teenager from Likou Town in Kiangsu Province, China. No-one
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Events
Why things really aren’t all black…
Ok, ok, ok, I know. The All Blacks blew it again (please don’t use that ‘choked’ word, we were simply beaten by a better team). Yes they are out of the World Rugby Cup at an early stage again. Yes it will be ‘four more years’ before they have the chance to end a 24-year
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Events
A taste of things to come?
Given his fanatical support of the All Blacks rugby team The Moodie Report Publisher is highly suspicious of all things French at the moment. In the run-up to Saturday’s big Rugby World Cup quarter-final between two of the tournament’s top sides, I have temporarily avoided all things French, in case of a repeat of the food poisoning that so devastated