USA. The 2020 Duty Free & Travel Retail Summit of the Americas, due to be held on 30 March-2 April in Orlando, is set to proceed as planned, despite the impact on travel retail of the COVID-19 outbreak.
That’s the message from International Association of Airport Duty Free Stores (IAADFS) President & CEO Michael Payne, speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report yesterday. “We’re certainly paying attention and monitoring it [the crisis] in any way that we can, and we’ve had one cancellation from a Chinese tobacco company, which was understandable,” Payne said. “And we’ve had one relatively new company who cancelled, blaming it on the virus.
“But I don’t see from the US or Latin America any real huge push to not attend because of the virus. However, I also realise that everything could change… so I think people have an eye towards it, but I don’t see any push [away from the show]. If we started getting hundreds of cancellations then we’d have to figure something out, but I haven’t seen that. We’re still getting requests for booths.”
Payne said that attendance by beauty houses was limited long before the COVID-19 crisis emerged so that sector has not been affected. Drink companies, with the notable exception of Pernod Ricard, will be out in force, led by Diageo, he noted.
Asked about buyer and retailer attendance, Payne replied: “From the key buyers and major companies… we’ve got pretty good registration and sign-up. They’re registering their people, and that’s the number I’m most focused on. The trade show floor is 80-85% sold. It’s going to look full and active. The buyer number is the one that I am the most focused on and we’re still working, and pushing out the messages as often as we can.”
Once more the show will be highlighted by Executive Conference Sessions, held on Tuesday, 31 March and Wednesday 1 April, both from 8am to 10am.
Here are the details
Tuesday, March 31
8:00 – 8:30 am
Welcome and Official Opening
Rene Riedi, CEO for Division 4, Dufry Group of Companies, and Chairman, IAADFS
Gustavo Fagundes, CEO of Dufry do Brasil and Bolivia, and President, ASUTIL
8:30 – 9:15 am
The Future of Duty Free and Travel Retail in the View of the Managing Director of the Leading Category
Yannick Raynaud, Managing Director Duty Free & Travel Retail Americas, L’Oreal
9:15 – 10:00 am
Buyer and Supplier Panel: Today’s New Consumers
Martin Moodie, Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Davitt Report, will moderate a prestigious panel discussion featuring some of the main players within the duty free and travel retail industry.
Yannick Raynaud, Managing Director Duty Free & Travel Retail Americas, L’Oréal
John McDonnell, International Managing Director, Tito’s Handmade Vodka
Peter Zehnder, Head of Division Global Duty Free, Lindt
Enrique Urioste, Cluster General Manager for South America (excluding Brazil), Dufry
Wednesday, April 1
8:00 – 9:00 am
The Secrets Behind Amazon’s Success and Key Changes Affecting E-Commerce
Scot Wingo, CEO, Get Spiffy, Inc.
Scot Wingo is a four-time serial entrepreneur from the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina region. He is an industry thought leader in the ecommerce and on-demand economy realms. In addition to contributing to numerous business publications and broadcasts and speaking at hundreds of conferences, Scot is co-host of two podcasts: The Jason and Scot Show that focuses on e-ommerce, payments and retail trends, plus the Vehicle 2.0, that covers the four trends (changing ownership models, connectivity, electrification, autonomy) that are changing the automotive and transportation industries more in the next 10 years than the past 100.
9:00 – 9:15 am
DFWC Update on the WHO Tobacco Protocol
Sarah Branquinho, President, Duty Free World Council
9:15 – 9:50 am
When Online and Travel Retail Get Together: The Digital Journey
m1nd-set defines the role of digital touch points in the path to purchasing and their impact on decision-making and understanding the dynamics linking both online and travel retail channels, with a special focus on North versus Latin American consumers and an overview on Chinese trave’lers to the Americas.
Peter Mohn, CEO & Co-Owner, m1nd-set
Anna Marchesini, Project Manager, m1nd-set
Click here for full details of the show.
