The 2025 TFWA World Exhibition & Conference was Philippe Margueritte’s first as president of the association since being elected in December 2024, succeeding Erik Juul-Mortensen. Following Juul-Mortensen, whose history with TFWA started at its beginning, is no small task. Margueritte tells TMI at a meeting in his office at the Palais in Cannes that his goal is to bring TFWA into the future, supporting and reinforcing its members’ goals.
Margueritte says TFWA’s key priorities include creating value for the industry, addressing issues like market data and fostering collaboration among stakeholders.
“My objective is not to make my mark. My motivation is to bring the association to the next level,” says Margueritte, who spent 12 years with L’Oréal, and more than 17 years with Coty, the last seven as head of global travel retail, before winning his one-year term in charge of TFWA last year.
Creating Value
“The key priority is to create value for our members. We want to share the best practices, so that we can all inspire each other, because we’re an industry where we have a lot of talent. The second thing is helping our industry to solve issues that we have been debating for decades and been unable to solve. There are several, but for me, on the top of the list are market data/knowledge of our industry and business education,” he says.
Margueritte says he knows that the sharing of data has been a topic of conversation for years, but he thinks that stakeholders may finally heed the warnings and collaborate.
“I think the mentality is changing. We cannot rely only on passenger growth. It has been one of our key pillars over the last 50 years, but we know that passenger growth is going to slow down, although not immediately. We should have 20 more years of outstanding growth. But at one stage, the growth is going to stop. So we need to prepare, because it takes a lot of time to build business intelligence,” he says.
“There are now people in the retail, landlord, and airline segments that are absolutely conscious of the need to build business intelligence. It is very important that this tool must create value for the industry. All the work that TFWA will do in the coming months is to design a program that people trust; the security of the data, the intimacy of the data, the access. So this work is very important and we won’t be able to complete it in one year. This is a several year project.”
Facilitating data gathering
TFWA’s role will be as a facilitator bringing all the stakeholders together, says Margueritte.
“We are dedicating a lot of energy to bring all the stakeholders together for sharing. We were not successful in the past because we were not including all the different stakeholders of this industry,” he says.
“When I say bring people together, it’s not only brands because we are a brand association, but also all the stakeholders of our industry. They’re all welcome at TFWA. One of our added values is being able to put the people together, sharing and pushing boundaries together for the future good of the association and the industry.”
TFWA is able to do this because of its neutral position. In addition to bringing in more people, technology and innovation will play key roles in helping TFWA achieve its members’ goals.
Margueritte points to the new Innovation Square, which offered industry stakeholders a dedicated 25m x 15m space at the foot of the Palais des Festivals steps for sharing their latest thoughts on optimizing the traveler experience, as one way TFWA is focusing on forward-thinking solutions and best practice in a collaborative environment where travel retail professionals can learn, debate and network.
“It’s the first year for the Innovation Square. So the first response has been quite impressive, because the people discovered that suddenly something new was happening. It’s a huge 400 sqm space with new services and new product development. I think it’s a first step. We can do even more, and we will do even more.”
What is essential is connecting the new technology and innovation with accurate data.
“The emerging trends are innovation, experience, and technology. But if we want to do technology today, we need data. This is the huge thing that we cannot miss — either we use technology, or we will be dead.
“Why is it so important for us? One of the biggest problems on High Street is the quality of their data. Everybody’s lying about their age. When you are flying, you can’t lie about your age, you can’t lie about where you live and where you are going. We know that you can’t lie about how many times you are flying. We know that. So the accuracy of data in travel retail is very good. It is a dream for High Street. But we are not using it today. So the challenge we have with data is to work together. We will not win with individual investment. This is the biggest way forward. We have a conversion rate that is around 15% today. There is still 85% waiting for us.”
Increasing the conversion rate is essential, says Margueritte, but travel retail is not immune from global conflicts, and the political turmoil in the United States is causing uncertainty among travelers in the region.
“What is absolutely clear is that in America today there is a lot of uncertainty. And we know that uncertainty can delay investments, the temptation to reduce our teams, to be more cautious, and all this is bad for business, because all of those people affected by those troubles, do not travel. It’s a vicious cycle that is very complicated,” he says.
However, Margueritte says the tariffs could actually help duty free prices in the United States
“Tariffs are bringing back a significant price advantage to travel retail in the U.S. In the latest study we did with Kearney it shows that it can be around a 35% price advantage. If we are clever and smart and agile, I think there is an opportunity for travel retail in the U.S. to be reshaped quite significantly.”
Another positive for travel retail in the United States is all the new infrastructure improvements, especially the new terminal constructions at JFK in New York across multiple terminals, with more focus being put on bringing in non-aeronautical revenue
“I’m glad to see that these things are evolving. There is clear potential in the U.S. in travel retail. That’s for sure.”
