Travel Markets Insider Newsletter Vol. 16 No. 43

The Travel Markets Insider newsletter is attached to this post as a PDF file. To open the PDF file, please click on this link.

May we start off 2015 wishing you and yours a year filled with peace, health, happiness and prosperity, even as we are filled with sadness for the murder today of the French journalists at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.

This first issue of the new year is filled with numbers. The lead story reports on the UNWTO forecast of record international tourism, led by strong growth in the Americas, which from January to October has turned in the strongest results in a decade. Page 1.

The latest duty free sales results from Canada are also in; as are the December passenger figures from Mexican airport group ASUR. Following on the WTO forecast about the strong tourism growth in the U.S., Miami and Los Angeles airports and New York JFK Terminal 4, each report record passenger numbers.

We are also very pleased to be presenting the first results of a series of surveys on topics of interest to the travel retail community, designed and conducted by Travel Retail Forum Group founder David Ferreira in partnership with TMI. Today’s topic was “What makes Duty Free Attractive to Travelers?”

Not surprisingly, “Price Savings” was the #1 selection, being chosen as the top reason to shop duty free by a little over half of the respondents. More than a quarter of respondents thought that the allure of brands not available in the local market was the primary motivator to shop, however. We would love to hear your comments, which may be recorded on LinkedIn at the Travel Retail Forum group page. See page 1 for the next survey underway now.

SUPPLY SIDE. Congratulations to RITUALS Home & Body Cosmetics, who has hit the U.S. market with a bang, winning the prestigious WWD Beauty Inc, 2014 Specialty Retailer of the Year award after only one year in the U.S. market. The brand is growing rapidly in travel retail venues as well. See full story on page 3.

The Estee Lauder Companies topped off a year of strategic luxury acquisitions with the news on Dec. 19 that it had signed an agreement to acquire GLAMGLOW, the California skin-care brand of high-end mud-based treatment masks. More details on page 3.