The Travel Markets Insider newsletter is attached to this post as a PDF file. To open the PDF file, please click on this link.
West Coast Port Dispute. Retailers, manufacturers, supplier trade and transportation officials throughout the U.S. and beyond are sighing with relief as the nine-month long contract dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) appears to be resolved. On Friday (Feb. 20) the two organizations issued a joint statement saying that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract covering workers at all 29 West Coast ports. See full story on pages 1 & 4.
The DFASS Group and Eastern Air Lines have announced a long term multi-faceted partnership that includes a full service in-flight duty free concession coupled with the state of the art DFASS Solutions to manage Eastern’s Buy on Board (BOB) program. The iconic Eastern Air Lines is being re-launched, commencing charter operations later this year. Page 2.
Denver International Airport (DIA) – which turns 20 years-old this month – is celebrating record concession revenues of $322.8 million in 2014, marking the second consecutive year of record-setting sales, reports DIA officials. Read more details on page 3.
Tourism Development in South America. A group of investors led by Simon Falic, Chairman of Duty Free Americas, plans to build a 5-star Hard Rock Hotel and Casino complex in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Construction is set to begin before the end of the year. Page 4.
PEOPLE. Jose Carlos Rosa, former COO of Dufry do Brazil, has been appointed CEO of Lojas Francas de Portugal, a joint venture of TAP Air Portugal and Dufry. Hershey’s Amy Wilson has been promoted to lead the company’s travel retail expansion in Europe. Page 2.
Association News.
Registration is now open for the 2015 TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference,
taking place May 10-14 in Singapore. Details on page 1.
Supply Side. Beam Suntory will be exhibiting at the IAADFS Duty Free Show for the first time since the launch of its global distribution operation, showcasing its extensive portfolio of world-leading spirits.
We are also very pleased to be presenting the second 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 queried the industry on whether to run Global Campaigns showing the benefits of buying Duty Free.
An overwhelming majority of respondents – more than 70% — said that running a global campaign would benefit retailers – with 20% opting for a similar campaign at the store level. Another 7% did not believe that such a campaign should be run. Where do you stand on this issue? 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 survey results.
