Up close and personal in travel retail
As we met outside our planned rendezvous in Aberdeen (the Hong Kong version, not Scotland), Andrew looked at me with bemused surprise. “Wow. You look so young!” “Yeah, right,” I replied miserably. “No, I’m not joking. You do. You look so much younger.”
Gary and I have inhabited the same industry for decades (he joined Plaza Bali in Indonesia in 1991), battled at various points an identical health foe, and retained our joy for travel retail over all those years.
In my view, no airport in the world better encapsulates the much talked-about, often poorly served concept of sense of place as Taoyuan International.
When Alfons Loacker purchased the patisserie in which he had worked since he was a boy, little could he have foreseen the extraordinary journey the company that bears his name would undertake over the following century.
My photos capture prime examples of the incredibly rapid transformation in the Kingdom. What will endure longer in my memory, however, from my journey here is the pride, passion and emboldenment of the people of Saudi Arabia and of the vision and vibrancy that underpins a startling societal and business transformation.
“What’s happening in aviation in Saudi Arabia is magnificent, and something that we all want to be part of and contribute to.”
I’m in Abha, often described as the cultural heart of Saudi’s Aseer region and I’m almost breathless, not because of the rarefied air in what is known as Abha High City (some 2,000sq m above sea level) but because of its majestic beauty.
My lengthy visit to the domestic and international zones underlined time and again not only the ambition underpinning the airport’s transformation but also the huge potential this already flourishing gateway offers.
“Welcome to Al Balad and Jeddah,” says Abir, our wonderful tour guide. “Once you come here you will never want to leave.” Take a look at my pictures and you will see why.
Bandaranaike International features a dual duty-free retailer model – Sri Lanka Duty Free (Dufry) and Flemingo – and frankly it makes as little sense here as it did at Auckland Airport in my native New Zealand (prior to the return to a single operator structure in June 2023).
Catchy? You gotta believe it. Any song that rhymes Moodie with groovy has to be, right?
If the days of bulk selling to consumers who are buying for others (and I’m not talking gifting) are over (or at least limited), then what fills the gap?
And at that precise moment as one year passes into another, of course one thinks about all those ‘auld acquaintances’ no longer with us, parents, siblings, friends, colleagues.
