A high-class four-ball of (left to right) Dubai Duty Free’s Colm McLoughlin, Frey’s Clive de la Roche, L’Oréal Produits de Luxe International’s Eric Tarral and Aer Rianta International-Middle East’s John Sutcliffe won Sunday’s annual Gebr Heinemann & Hugo Boss golf tournament that precedes TFWA World Exhibition. Held at the Cannes Mandelieu course in brilliant

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The Moodie Blog is in Cannes for the TFWA World Exhibition – the 25th anniversary of the travel retail industry’s leading trade show. As always we’ve set up our temporary French Riviera bureau at our apartment right opposite the Palais. Across from us a giant hoarding promoting the exhibition dominates the skyline, and the Moodie

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Take a look at each of these pictures – let your eyes linger longer than they normally would. Look at the happiness and beauty bursting from them all. They each form part of an outstanding initiative by TFWA to mark its 25th anniversary in Cannes later this month. The association has pledged €50,000 to two

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If I close my eyes I can see the sunlight tumbling down between the native pines Broken by the breeze, splashing red and orange light I can see the wedge-tailed eagle climbing stairways in the sky; If I close my eyes  –  John Schumann, If I close my eyes With great sadness we report the

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When I arrived at my hotel in Singapore yesterday afternoon – the Mandarin Oriental – the place was abuzz with expectation, with scores of expectant-looking people gathered outside the entrance with their cameras. The reason alas was not The Moodie Report’s arrival but that of  Liverpool Football Club as part of their Asian tour. They

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The Moodie Report is in Singapore, where later today a major launch involving an airport, a brand, a retailer and a charity takes place. All is embargoed for now but I can tell you the excitement is building here for what amounts to a very special launch indeed. The Moodie Report has been asked to

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When I place my hand in a cold pool and fingerling salmon nibble the ends of my fingers, I know the pool will freeze over and the fingerlings will live under the ice until May when the ice will thaw and the adult salmon will swim into the river’s main channel and eventually work their

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Warning. Do not approach this woman. She is armed and dangerous. Yes, it is none other than The Moodie Report Associate Editor Rebecca Mann, a woman renowned for calling a spade a spade or in this case a coas a coas. For the uninitiated a coas is the lethally sharp instrument used to harvest the agave

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The fundraising efforts for Stuart Mangan, the young Irish rugby player paralysed from the neck down during a game on 5 April 2008, are reaching amazing heights – mirroring the immense courage and determination of an extraordinary man (see www.StuartMangan.org for full details). Stuart’s brother John is L’Oréal UK Luxury Fragrance Division Deputy General Manager – and

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There are many rugby followers in the travel retail community, some of whom plan to descend on New Zealand in 2011 to support their respective countries in the Rugby World Cup. Now, dramatic news reaches The Moodie Blog that the industry may even have a player participating in the event. All around the world qualifying

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Two faces. One child. Meet Xena Cordova from the Philippines. This little girl is five years old and comes from one of the country’s poorest areas. Her parents, though loving, are uneducated and illiterate. They could never afford to pay for the cleft surgery their beautiful but disfigured daughter needed. But help was at hand.

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These words are unforgivably overdue. But better, as they say, late than never. They were prompted by a chance meeting with the irrepressible Sandro Bottega (above) at the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale last week, That encounter reminded me of one of the industry’s most poignant announcements of recent times when Italian

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