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ASIA PACIFIC. The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) has announced its research programme for 2016 and 2017 following a survey of members’ priorities.
It will continue to focus on consumer purchasing behaviour by nationality while also providing traffic forecasts and market trends. Another key feature will be a progression analysis comparing the evolution of consumer groups over recent years, the trade association said.
In 2016, core studies into purchasing (and non-shopping) behaviour of travelling consumers, passenger demographics and reasons for travelling by market will be conducted, while APTRA said it would also tap into Swiss research agency m1nd-set’s new “˜mega-insights’ research into current and future travel trends, traffic forecasts and the macro-economic context for each market.
Ten key markets will be studied over the two year research programme: Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand in 2016; and China (tier 1 airports), China (tier 2 and 3), South Korea, India and Japan in 2017. The 2017 studies will analyse the evolution of attitudes and behaviour since those same markets were studied in 2015.
APTRA members were questioned about their priorities in terms of topics and specific markets as well as the scale of investment which should be committed to each project. The results of the survey showed they were not only “categorically in favour” of maintaining the existing style of research but also wanted to increase its scope and the level of investment.
APTRA President Jaya Singh commented: “The better we understand the macro-economic context in which the duty free and travel retail industry operates, the changing shopping behaviour of our consumers and the way in which the markets are evolving, the closer we will be to providing an irresistible and financially-viable travel retail environment.”
M1nd-set Owner & CEO Peter Mohn said: “We believe the research themes chosen in recent years and again for the coming two years meet the needs of the industry and the growing APTRA membership very well. We have noticed over the years that the members really make good use of the actionable analysis and reports. We are confident that this research will continue to benefit the whole industry in the Asia Pacific region.”
The annual APTRA Insights Seminars will commence in Singapore during the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference in May.
