ASUTIL 2016 to deliver strategies for overcoming market challenges

Exterior Facade
The Sheraton Santiago Hotel and Convention Center, venue for this year’s ASUTIL conference

CHILE. A challenging business climate forms the backdrop for the 20th annual ASUTIL conference, which opens this Wednesday (8 June) in Santiago de Chile.

Aptly, ASUTIL 2016’s theme is ‘Step by Step in the Right Direction’, and will provide a focus on taking measures towards recovery.

Travel retailers across South America have yet to see an end to a steep downturn in sales prompted above all by Brazil’s economic and political crisis.

Economic woes and currency devaluations have also knocked confidence among Latin American travelling consumers.

Last month’s shock news of Grupo Wisa’s entanglement in a US Treasury Department investigation into alleged money laundering has added to the negative mood.

Many of Grupo Wisa’s La Riviera duty free stores across Latin American airports are reported closed or trading only on a limited basis.

Panama City-based Wisa announced in late May that it had placed its Colombian stores into administration – including those at Bogota El Dorado Airport.

That adds to existing challenges in Bogota, where other retailers recorded double-digit declines in year-on-year sales in the first months of 2016 – despite an increase in passenger numbers.

There are similar stories in airports and border locations in much of the region – with notable exceptions such as Chile and Mexico.

“We are talking about a double-digit decline in sales for most of our members in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year,” confirmed ASUTIL Secretary-General José Luis Donagaray (pictured).

DSC_3599“Some markets are doing worse than others, of course, but in general the environment is not very good because of the Brazilian political situation.”

ASUTIL has organised a strong roster of speakers to offer their ideas on achieving recovery, and will conclude with a stirring story of the human spirit from plane-crash survivor Roberto Canessa.

“We felt that is important to offer a message of hope and survival through effort,” Donagaray told The Moodie Davitt Report.

“This is a tough moment for the industry worldwide, but as our conference theme states, by taking things step by step we can head in the right direction.”

The Moodie Davitt Report Latin America supplement, published this week, contains a full overview of the region’s travel retail industry.

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