The International Monetary Fund cut its outlook for global growth to the lowest rate since the financial crisis in its latest outlook issued in April. The world economy will grow 3.3 % this year, down from the 3.5 % the IMF had forecast for 2019 in January, according to the latest World Economic Outlook. World trade, which had been growing at about 5%, expanded by 3.8% last year and is forecast to rise 3.4% in 2019. Latin America is particularly hard hit, […]
Latin America
SSP DFA Brazil to open restaurants at Salvador Bahia Airport
A new partnership between SSP and Duty Free Americas (DFA) called SSP DFA Restaurantes Brasil Ltda will be opening seven high-quality restaurants and food and beverage outlets at Salvador Bahia Airport in Brazil. Under the new joint venture, a number of international and local brands will open at the airport. The new deal is […]
The State of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluating PPP opportunities for 20 regional airports through IOS Partners
International economic development consulting and financial advisory firm IOS Partners has been awarded a major multi-airport master planning consultancy to evaluate the opportunities for private-public partnerships for regional airports in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Under the agreement, IOS Partners will focus on rationalizing State participation in the regional airports, and identify and compare […]
ForwardKeys: Argentina’s economic woes entice tourists
International travelers are flocking to Argentina, taking advantage of the poorly performing peso to boost the value of their holiday spending money, reports travel booking analyst company ForwardKeys. Bookings for March to May are ahead 11.2% compared to last year, says the research firm. For South America as a whole, bookings are ahead 5.8%. In […]
South American duty free sales struggle as regional recovery stalls
The duty free business in the Mercosur countries has continued to struggle in the first four months of this year, with expected improvements in Argentina and Brazil stalled, likely until the end of the year. ASUTIL Secretary General José Luis Donagaray told media in a webinar this week that the industry does not expect to […]
Panama tenders $9 million cruise terminal operation
The Panama Maritime Authority has announced the tender for the operation and maintenance of the cruise terminal on Perico Island. The terminal is located at Panama City’s Amador Causeway, near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. In this phase of the project, the terminal will be able to berth two large ships up to 380 meters/1,247 […]
Argentina’s Monica Ariaudo’s award-winning store designs serve travelers throughout the Americas
Monica Ariaudo and her team of architects at Estudio Ariaudo in Buenos Aires have played a part in the design of nearly every travel retail development in Argentina and Uruguay in recent years. One of the leading retail architects and shop designers in Latin America. Ariaudo takes an active role in the duty free stores […]
One on One with Rene Riedi, Division CEO Central and South America for Dufry
Managing the LATAM airport duty free business in challenging times The duty free and travel retail business in South America experienced one of its most difficult years in recent memory in 2018, a situation that took place practically overnight. A company like Dufry, which has airport operations in nearly every country in the region, […]
Currency stability returns but outlook for travel retail remains uncertain
Most Latin American economies are experiencing a comparatively quiet start to the year. The currency devaluations that caused such problems in the middle of last year have dissipated, at least for the moment. Both the Argentine Peso and the Brazilian Real have been holding their own against the US Dollar although financial analysts worry that […]
WEBB Banks reinforces number one position in Caribbean
WEBB Banks, the newly created wine and spirits super distributor, is having fantastic success in the region, CEO Andy Consuegra tells TMI. Created from the joining of North Carolina’s Banks Channel and Miami’s WEBB, the merger gave the combined company the scale, the leverage and breadth of portfolio that the partners did not have separately, […]
Rituals global expansion gathers pace as brand opens first store in Americas travel retail at London Supply
Rituals teamed up with Essence Corp, its Americas distributor, to open the brand’s first travel retail store in the region, located at London Supply’s Puerto Iguazu duty free complex. The 28sq m shop-in-shop, which opened Feb. 2, features a large assortment of Rituals products including fragrance sticks, candles, perfumes, gift sets and products from […]
Waked sues National Bank of Panama for losses due to actions taken after company was listed on US Clinton list
Abdul Waked, founder of former leading travel retail company Grupo Wisa, has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the National Bank of Panama (BNP), claiming damages, loss and loss-of- profit stemming from actions taken after Waked and his businesses were included by the U.S. Treasury Department on the “Clinton List” for activities linked to money laundering […]
ASUTIL to meet with Brazilian and Uruguayan officials to clarify border store product restrictions
Following its announcement in January regarding the harmonization regulations issued by Mercosur at the end of 2018, South American duty free association ASUTIL will be meeting with government officials of Brazil and Argentina to clarify the list of products that had been excluded for sale in the region’s border stores. In a webinar on Friday […]
First Brazilian border duty free store could open by the end of the month
Brazilian businessman Marcos Lemos has confirmed to Travel Markets Insider that his company expects to open the first duty free shop in a Brazilian border town at the end of February/beginning of March. This store – under the façade of “Caraballat Free Shop” — will be the first to open in Brazilian territory since the Brazilian government […]
3Sixty and Avianca Holdings sign agreement for On Line Market Platform for Latin American airline network
3Sixty (formerly DFASS) and airline group Avianca Holdings (AVH) have signed an agreement to convert the current inflight concessions with AVH’s controlled airlines into an innovative pre-order duty free and duty paid platform. The new Joint Business Agreement (JBA) will start with Avianca (Colombia), Aerogal (Ecuador), TACA (Peru), and LACSA (Costa Rica), and will service […]
