What a beautiful island Jeju is, full of natural wonder, history (some of it dark and poignant) and culture. It is known as a healing place, somewhere to take stock of life’s pressures and priorities.
Miscellaneous
Welcome to Korean duty free 2018-style
It’s a simple formula. The demand exists in China, it is fulfilled in Korea. Welcome to Korean travel retail 2018-style. It is like nothing you will see anywhere else.
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Miscellaneous
Korean duty free – no place for the faint-hearted
Shinsegae Duty Free has been in my view travel retail’s most impressive newcomer of recent times and based on their current momentum will be a top ten industry player in the near future.
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Airports
How Korea’s travel retail pie is developing a very different flavour
There are too many duty free retailers here fighting over a pie that on the one hand is rising but on the other has a base that could crumble at any time.
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Miscellaneous
Heading to South Korea for a spot of Seoul-searching
And so it was this morning that I heard the most welcome five words in the English language. “Mr Moodie, you’ve been upgraded.”
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Events
Orlando bureau opens for business
Could that be my business partner Dermot Davitt’s no doubt historic post-match hangover in Galway drifting across the Atlantic?
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Miscellaneous
How a Franco-Irish combo promises to take the pain away for travel retail buyers
Imagine if a single supplier had access to the entire remaining stock of entire vintages of some of the world’s best wines?
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Airports
For peat’s sake! Local wine proves a hit on Irish turf
“It’s bog standard wine, Dara,” came the inevitable response from one Twitter wag.
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Beauty
Packing up in duty free for the holiday
I watched as some of the world’s most illustrious beauty brands were stripped out of their packaging and stuffed into this young woman’s holdalls. Doesn’t do much for the selective distribution argument does it?
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Events
Looking for a horologist to fix an ailing body clock
Anyone know a good horologist? My body clock is in serious need of repair. When I left Melbourne I was 11 hours ahead of London time. After stepping off a 14-hour flight I was 8 hours behind.
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Airports
Finding funnel-webs and missing apostrophes in Melbourne
I was tempted to go up to the information counter and ask politely, “Where can I find an apostrophe?”
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People
Recognising ‘Mr Chocolate’, ‘the man from Mars’ and a champion of travel retail
“I think there must be several Stuart Bulls, so often do we see him here in the region” – Colm McLoughlin, Dubai Duty Free.
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Events
Flying Foxes and new-look King Power store augur well for Trinity Forum
Given that King Power-owned Leicester City’s crucial match against Everton kicked off precisely as my flight took off, the first thing I wanted to know from Khun Tongchai was the score. “Two-nil,” he said with a beam as wide as the King Power Stadium in Leicester.