Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Strange Nature gin from New Zealand celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
QATAR. Today’s choice comes as I transit through Hamad International Airport (HIA) en route to a family holiday, amid the peak late night bustle of passengers at this magnificent consumer and commercial environment developed by Qatar Duty Free, writes Dermot Davitt.
Although The Moodie Davitt Report pays regular visits to HIA, and has been on hand for many of the major openings and events of recent years, there is always something new to take in.
Near B gates there’s a beautifully curated Dolce & Gabbana store, opened just weeks ago. In the main passenger concourse there’s a brilliantly immersive MAC campaign, led by a sales outpost but supplemented by digital reminders right across the terminal – in the stores and along the walkways – to coincide with World Lipstick Day (29 July).
Alongside the spectacular boutique offer in the Terminal Expansion there is the recently opened Louis Vuitton Lounge by Yannick Alléno – whose opening we attended in May – and through the adjacent lounge a glimpse of the next exciting development, with the world’s first Dior Spa at an airport.
We cannot reveal too much before the official inauguration later in the year, but this is shaping up as a next-level experience in travel retail from one of the world’s great brands, in partnership with Qatar Duty Free.
Take a walk through HIA – or other Gulf hubs such as DXB as I did last week – and you feel the rush of a travel market now in full recovery. Between the peak of 10pm and 2am HIA is alive with departing and transiting travellers from what feels like every country on the planet, and with an offer across shopping and dining to suit every wallet size and taste.
And even then, when you walk through the lush green gardens in the Expansion, you feel barely a ripple of the busy travel hub around you. As my younger daughter said on our way through, “It’s not like being at an airport at all is it?” ✈
