My various Moodie Davitt Report Interim Bureaux of recent weeks have been more interim than usual. In the past three weeks I’ve set up shop in Toronto, Dublin, Moscow and Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Airports
Into the swing in Portstewart with “the Rory McIlroy of duty free”
“Tubber Patrick: The finest opening hole in links golf?” the Portstewart Golf Club website asks teasingly. Or, if you translate from the native Northern Irish, it means “are you really sure you want to do this?” I’m standing on hole number one at Portstewart, home to this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by
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Events
Magical moments in Moscow
Today we’re taking a tour of the Kremlin, followed by a boat ride this evening on the Moskva River. It’s going to be an action-packed few days with many of Regstaer’s business partners flying in for the occasion.
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Airports
How Adriana made my day at World Duty Free Heathrow
Two happy customers. Two good spends. One lovely salesperson. What a difference good people make. Thank you, Adriana.
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Events
Readers’ competition results: Capricious Capri causes an upset in Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby
Like all the entrants in our readers’ competition in association with Dubai Duty Free to pick the result of the big race, The Moodie Tipster was blind-sided by the capricious Capri, who made a mockery of previous form.
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Events
Win a million Dollars in our Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby readers’ competition
He’s French-bred (like a baguette) and Irish-trained (like the Dublin to Sligo railway), a dangerous nationalistic combination if I ever saw one.
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Events
FAB moments in Toronto; HNA hits heady heights in Paris
While the Chinese authorities may want a slowdown in capital outflow and will be wary of any systemic risk to the domestic banking system, it is hardly likely that the HNA juggernaut has in way been derailed.
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Events
Feeling FAB-ulous in terrific Toronto
Lonely Planet calls Toronto “the most multiculturally diverse city on the planet”, noting that over 140 languages are spoken here. “When the weather is fine, Toronto is a blast: a vibrant, big-time city abuzz with activity.”
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Airports
Why Gatwick isn’t the world’s 17,677th-best airport
If I ran an airport dubbed the second-worst in the world, I’d be miffed to know part of the reason was that some bolshie French air traffic controllers had downed tools and played havoc with flights all over Europe.
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Airports
All Black in the land of the long white cloud
The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, meaning the land of the long white cloud. For the British & Irish Lions though, it could be a cloud of a different colour. Big, menacing and all black.
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Events
Hellenic Duty Free showcases the true wealth of Greece
We sought out producers from all over the country whose products represent the wealth of the Greek earth and table.” As the pictures show, Greece, despite regular headlines of a different sort, remains a wealthy country indeed.
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Miscellaneous
Making a mark with e-commerce in the home of Alibaba
It’s no coincidence that cross-border e-commerce specialist and emerging travel retail player GDFS chose Hangzhou as the site to kick-start the next wave of its expansion. On Saturday GDFS opened its first Experience store in this city of nine million people, which is also home to one of the behemoths of the digital retail world, Alibaba. GDFS,
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Events
Joining a very select club
I have probably written that wine deserves a higher profile in travel retail more times than I have supped on a glass of chilled Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Thanks to the 90+ Club, the category will surely will get it.