The Moodie BLOG’s epic journey as the official chronicler of the global duty free launch of Chivas Regal 25yo reached its final destination this morning – Singapore Changi Airport. After a numbing 22-hour journey from New York JFK (site of the Americas launch on Saturday) via Frankfurt, Pernod Ricard Asia Travel Retail boss Alexandre Ricard,
Events
The Eagle has landed
Many delegates at next month’s Cannes show will be turning up with a bad case of fever. No, not avian flu or dengue, but rugby fever. The Saturday preceding the exhibition – the day of arrival for many visitors – is also the day (or night) of the Rugby World Cup final, to be played
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Events
Win two Rugby World Cup quarter-final tickets, support The Smile Train charity dinner and transform some young lives
Missing the match hurts – but it is more than offset by the pleasure of knowing a great cause will benefit. I’m offering my two tickets to a glamour quarter-final match at the Rugby World Cup on 6 October for auction. The game is likely to be played between the New Zealand All Blacks (unless Scotland pull off
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Events
ASUTIL erupts amid Argentinean rugby triumph
To say the room erupted when the final whistle blew (pictured) is an understatement. ASUTIL 2007 ended with a cacophany of sound, celebration and dancing among the Argentineans.
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Events
Who will be the BOSS at this year’s Rugby World Cup?
What’s a girl about town to do ? Especially when she has an acute sense of fashion (and the responsibility of championing one of its great names) and when she’s stuck for a choice of outfit for one of the great social occasions of the year? Followers of rugby – and there are many in
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Events
Who will be the Boss at Rugby’s World Cup?
What’s a girl about town to do ? Especially when she has an acute sense of fashion (and the responsibility of championing one of its great names) and when she’s stuck for a choice of outfit for one of the great social occasions of the year? Followers of rugby – and there are many in
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Airlines
The icing on the cake
The old saying ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’ obviously doesn’t apply to Korean Air. For cake was most definitely on the menu last month when the Seoul-based airline – the world’s most successful inflight retailer – celebrated setting an all-time single flight sales high of US$40,968. The result, achieved on an Incheon
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Events
A smile that lights up Hyderabad
The little boy looks shyly at the ground as his mother is asked to introduce him to me. He is six years old, with beautiful, big brown eyes. His name is Anji and tomorrow he will face a defining moment in his life – he will undergo surgery to repair the cleft lip and palate
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Airports
The Moodie BLOG in India: Part 7 – Hitting new heights in Bangalore
Indian aviation is constantly hitting new heights and smashing growth records. A ground-to-air revolution is being played out here and everyone wants a part of the action. The Times of India today described it as ‘zoom power’, and revealed that over 100 new airports are to be built in the country in so-called ‘tier-2’ cities (which
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Events
A hands-on approach to quality control
How should one best sample caviar? With onions? Sour cream? Parsley? With vodka? Answer? None of the above, according to Caviar House & Prunier President and CEO Peter Rebeiz who led a masterclass of caviar appreciation during a recent press conference in Paris to celebrate the company’s new travel markets distribution agreement with SSP. “If any
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Events
Duty free as a symbol of unity
It is perhaps our picture of the year. And certainly it is one of the most important and symbolic ones taken in duty free’s 60-year history. The photograph in question comes from Korea – for once neither the qualifer ‘North’ nor ‘South’ is unnecessary. The image is a symbol of a quality tragically lacking on the Korean
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Airports
In the hold!
Confiscations under the new EU aviation security regulations nearly claimed their greatest victim to date recently – the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup. The magnificent trophy was in the hands of American golfing ace John Kammerman of Imperial Tobacco, en route from his triumph in Dubai through London Heathrow and home to Singapore. With it
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Events
A grim backdrop for a booming business
One of the miracles of the Middle East duty free channel’s success in the past decade has been the way it has flourished in the face of non-stop political volatility. As delegates gather in Dubai today for the annual Middle East Duty Free Association (MEDFA) Conference, they will be reminded of that backdrop by the local newspaper