The Moodie Report is in Beijing, China, where in less than eight months the 2008 Olympic Games will take place. Everywhere you go here the excitement is palpable; construction is powering ahead across the city and its surrounds; and there is a very real sense of mission among the people. Beijing Capital International Airport’s new
Events
DFNI Charity Ball delivers its promise
The annual DFNI Charity Ball, held in London last Friday, continues to deliver vital revenues each year to causes that are generally out of the public limelight but which richly deserve the attention – and the funding – they get through this event. This year, proceeds from the Gala Dinner and auction went to Our Lady’s
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Airports
Will Nuance-Watson’s bold Changi bid bear fruit?
If you’re into symbolism it doesn’t get much better than this picture. I snapped it during the opening of Nuance-Watson Singapore’s elegant new perfumes & cosmetics mega-store at Changi Airport’s recently opened Terminal 3 last Friday. Pictured is The Nuance Group President and CEO Roberto Graziani being handed a mandarin orange by one of the Chinese
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Events
Who’s pulling the strings here?
Next time you’re in Bangkok, don’t miss an amazing new attraction at King Power’s Downtown Duty Free Complex. The Aksra Theatre is an integral THB600 million (US$19 million) component of King Power Chairman Vichai Raksriaksorn’s dream of a one-stop culture-to-entertainment-to-shopping extravaganza in downtown Bangkok. The duty free centre opened in August 2006 and is already established
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People
Stuart McGuire – a winner on every level
There are winners… and there are winners. And Scorpio Distributors Founder and Managing Director Stuart McGuire, not for the first time, proved himself the best possible example when his company was named ‘Supplier of the Year’ at the recent Inflight Sales Person of the Year (ISPY) Awards. This award was particularly significant as it was judged
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People
New Gal-a-way putter helps Colm takes the Tiger line
Readers of The Moodie Blog will remember the launch of the ingenious ‘crutch’ putter by its developer, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Colm McLoughlin, in late 2007. The club was conceived after Colm, a single handicapper, originally from Galway, began his recovery from hip surgery in the run-up to the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup last
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People
Mighty Mahendra from Motibhai
The travel retail industry is fortunate enough to be able to count on a number of great internationalists that have acted as true industry statesmen down the years. Sadly, we have just lost one – Dr Brendan O’Regan, the creator of the world’s first airport shop, back in Shannon, Ireland in 1947. But others carry
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People
Dr Brendan O’Regan’s universal gesture
“If you’re involved in developing an important idea, you have to let it possess you. If you keep knocking on the door, the door will open.” – Dr Brendan O’Regan. And so we say farewell to a great man of duty free, a great man of Ireland and a great man of peace. Dr Brendan
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People
Helping Andres Morochz
Terrible news came through on the wires today from our fine colleagues Lois and Paul Pasternak who do such a mighty job with their respected Americas-focused e-Newsletter and magazine, Travel Markets Insider. Insider revealed that Andres Morochz, who works for Beaute Prestige International (BPI), the hugely creative Shiseido-owned fragrance house, in its Miami office, broke two vertebrae in
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People
The man who allowed Kiwis to dream
Nearly 55 years ago, on 29 May 1953, two men scaled what was then considered by many to be the unassailable challenge of Mount Everest – the world’s highest mountain. One was a Sherpa whose name would enter mountaineering legend, Tenzing Norgay; the other a rugged, unassuming Kiwi called Edmund Hillary. Today, after his death on 11
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Airports
So where’s the dummy?
Oh the shame. The terrible, terrible shame. After writing the equivalent of War and Peace and two sequels over the past 18 months about the aviation security crisis and the LAGs issue, The Moodie Report Publisher is surely the last person ever to have any liquids confiscated at an airport, right? Er… wrong. British Airways’
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People
Making a difference on the front-line
The scene is London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 on a cold and drab winter’s day in late December. I’ve just staggered off the 12-and-a-half flight from Shanghai Pudong, where the weather was equally dank and miserable. My mood is similarly grey. I’m tired, fed-up and just want to get a cab home. (Rarely for me) I
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People
George Clooney and My Fair Lady
We had plenty of entries in The Moodie BLOG’s caption contest to best identify what famous American film star George Clooney was saying to Breeda McLoughlin, wife of Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Colm, during the recent Dubai Film Festival. Or, vice versa, what she was saying to him… George has played alongside some of