Showtime in Singapore prompts the need for a glorious obsession

My week in Singapore at TFWA Asia Pacific is over and my Interim Bureau at The Fullerton Hotel about to close.

In a couple of hours I will be enjoying the splendours of Changi Terminal 4, in my view one of the airport world’s most serene and engaging environments.

There was no closing press conference at TFWA Asia Pacific this year so I don’t know the official visitor and exhibitor numbers  – the former, or at least the buyer/retailer component, being as always the most critical indicator of a show’s success.

It was clear, however, that many retailers pruned their attendee numbers harder than the most zealous home gardener, particularly at the oh so key buyer level. That’s a direct reflection of a widespread softness in the channel, particularly related to the erosion of Chinese spending over recent times.

Alas, that has resulted in numerous beauty and liquor houses, in particular, reassessing their investment in the channel. And as night follows day, also to sweeping job losses and organisational restructuring.

Such companies are reevaluating all forms of discretionary investment in the channel, including exhibitions, conferences, travel, sector media spend (yes, we are certainly affected) and, as mentioned, manpower.

With many travel retailers feeling not so much the pinch as a full-body squeeze (look at the South Korean duty-free operators’ 2024 performances below; they are horrific), it’s little wonder that multiple exhibitors at this week’s show expressed their concern at buyer attendance.

That’s not TFWA’s fault – as always the show was nigh flawlessly organised – but it is the association’s dilemma, particularly with the flagship TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes just four months and 11 days away.

The French Riviera location is an expensive place to get to and to stay and somehow TFWA has to mitigate retailer costs for that and any other event to ensure the commercial buyer-meets-seller formula that drives any successful trade show is maximised.

The same applies to the next Singapore TFWA Asia Pacific outing in 2026. Whatever it takes, get the region’s retailers and buyers there in much, much bigger numbers.

The picture is not all bleak. I visited many stands during the week where brand representatives reported positive vibes. Established companies including CoLab, Duty Free Global, Tito’s and multiple others, alongside newcomers such as organic beauty brand Liht Organics, Australian manuka honey specialist Biosota and pet accessories house Hunter all spoke of a highly successful few days – in each case buoyed by intensive pre-show communication with retailers and a compellingly different product offer.

But let’s not paper over the cracks. There’s a very simple feeding chain to trade shows, which are a sophisticated (at least in TFWA’s case) form of matchmaking service.

Other than the giants which can afford to be present for sheer brand reinforcement purpose, sellers (brands) will exhibit if they meet buyers. Stepping up those buyer numbers and engagement must therefore be TFWA’s relentless but potentially glorious obsession.

Forget nice to haves such as expensive conference speakers (Hillary Clinton) and, god forbid, nasty to haves (Rudy Giuliani) and divert (rather than slash) other unnecessary costs into bolstering buyer attendance.

It’s a brutal corporate world out there at the moment and with the great Chinese wave that has driven our industry for the first quarter of the 21^st century now resembling a series of gentle ripples (in spending, not traveller, terms) reinvention is the name of the game.

I have never been thanked in the past for questioning Cannes as a venue for TFWA World Exhibition but I believe that debate must resurface. Any show organiser – including The Moodie Davitt Report – knows that attendance levels are heavily swayed by choosing a location that maximises point to point travel. A city without an airport and an hour from a regional one hardly ticks that box.

For much of the world, the halcyon days of pure duty-free retail (not of international travel) are over. Once investment in a trade show is removed from a brand’s or retailer’s P&L, it is a very tricky task to restore it.

The deterrent for such ‘de-investment’, if I may play havoc with the English language, must be, as I said, a glorious obsession for TFWA and any other show organiser.

Face-to-face trade events such as TFWA Asia Pacific and TFWA World Exhibition are a critical component of what makes travel retail unique. They mustn’t become an endangered species. ✈

MEMORIES OF MY WEEK