Up close and personal in travel retail
The Duty Zero by cdf arrivals store is testament to the fact that you don’t have to be big to be beautiful. Besides all the mainstream Cognacs and blended whiskies – and these categories contain some surprises too – there’s a really eclectic offer across this compact store.
I’m lucky to have lasted this long without picking up COVID. Lucky and careful. But how can you be careful amid all those hugs, kisses and handshakes that go with the terrority of attending international events?
With the dual red bars on the testing kit shining every bit as brightly as any of the neon signs around my Interim Bureau in Bangkok’s Watthana District, I don’t expect to be joining the hubbub below anytime soon.
My throat feels like I have been dining on sandpaper and as a result I have a voice that makes Lee Marvin’s almost death rattle version of Wand’rin Star sound like it’s being sung by a boy soprano.
The Moodie Davitt Report chose ‘Straight and True’ as the tagline for our sponsorship of the golf carts on day one, the mantra the antithesis of almost every golf shot I have played in my life.
Yes, spectators were meant to don masks when not eating and drinking, which as many of them never stopped drinking meant they did not have to wear them at all.
The Orchard amounts to a feast of the senses, packed with vast internal panoramas, the magical allure of an indoor tropical gardens, expansive walkways along the luxury-lined shopping avenues, a thrilling fusion of shopping and dining, and much more.
What I saw (and what passengers will see) redefines the airport experience. Not the Hamad International Experience, any airport experience. I can’t give any more away than that before tomorrow. But I promise you, the story will be worth the wait.
The Trinity Forum was back for the first time since those halcyon days of late October 2019 in Doha, Qatar. Little did we realise amid the euphoria of that event that we would not meet again for so long.
With most of the airport’s shops and restaurants closed through much of the pandemic, you could be forgiven for thinking the airport’s commercial and retail teams have been in holding mode. You could not be more wrong.
“I’ve a blue dress on so you can recognise me.” Both of us were there on time, albeit 50 metres apart, Pam thinking she had been stood up. Me? You guessed it. Chatting away to a bemused woman in a blue dress. Who turned out not to be running retail at Gatwick Airport but was impressed that I knew so much about it…
“Get Shiseido on the line. Two bottles down and we’re still not finished with him…”
In the face of inevitable and glittering industry acknowledgements Martin, you will always be more famous as the guy that did the Triple Salchow off the hotel bed during lockdown.
