INTERNATIONAL. We were preparing to celebrate this landmark issue of The Moodie Davitt e-Zine – our 250th.
The shattering news, however, that King Power International Group Chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha had been killed in a helicopter crash near his beloved Leicester City Football Club on Saturday night changed all that. There can be no celebration of anything in our industry right now, just pain and sorrow and loss.
“In Khun Vichai, the world has lost a great man,” said Leicester City Football Club in a statement. “A man of kindness, of generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led.”
We echo those words. Khun Vichai was a man not simply of great achievement but one of compassion, grace and humility. He gave then gave again to all manner of causes, big and small. He touched many people in travel retail, as in his wider life, with individual acts of kindness.
We join everyone in our industry in expressing our deepest sorrow and condolences to Khun Vichai’s family, friends, management and staff on their pain and inconsolable loss.
“I’m very proud to announce there is now a new player – a very relevant player – in travel retail: 3Sixty. Duty Free & More.” Those were the words of Roberto Graziani, Executive Vice Chairman of the former DFASS Group, at an historic launch event in Miami earlier this month, with the company now recast in a new and forward-thinking corporate guise.
In a special report on the new identity, we interview Graziani as well as founding entrepreneur Benny Klepach and digital transformation man Kian Gould.
We also bring you on-location reports from launches in Japan and the Netherlands. Tokyo was the venue for the unveiling of Philip Morris International’s ‘next-generation’ IQOS products – the next step in its extraordinary and at one point inconceivable smoke-free revolution. And Amsterdam’s magnificent Rijksmuseum was the launch venue for a pioneering partnership between lifestyle label Rituals and national airline KLM.
The 2018 Trinity Forum, the world’s leading airport commercial revenues conference, is taking place in Shanghai this week. See inside the issue for an exclusive preview of the event, the full conference schedule, and a key interview with Lagardère Travel Retail’s Dag Rasmussen and Ambroise Fondeur.
In our popular Airports as Artports column, we are in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for a stunning new exhibition celebrating the unusual life of one of the “main figures and witnesses” of 20th century art history – Dina Vierny.
Finally, we mark our milestone 250th issue with a look back on key moments and covers in the history of a transformative travel retail publication, which continues to embrace (and to stretch) the full power of the digital platform.
Thank you for being with us on our journey to date.
