ASIA PACIFIC. The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) has opened registration for its first Northeast Asia Forum in Hong Kong on 3-5 December at the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong.
With Airport Authority Hong Kong and Hong Kong International Airport as Platinum Host Partners, the event has attracted strong industry support, including Avolta and King Power as Gold Partners. Pernod Ricard has joined as Lead Drinks Partner, with China Trading Desk and m1nd-set confirmed as Research Partners.
With the theme ‘The Great Travel Retail Reset’, the event’s agenda will feature a keynote address by highly respected industry veteran and Roche Design Strategy Founder Kevin Roche.
Renowned for his consumer insight gained over a 50-year retail career, Roche has shaped unique retail, lifestyle and hospitality destinations for leading brands, retail groups and commercial real-estate executives.
He is also notable for his leadership at LVMH’s Selective Retailing Group, where he served as President of Marketing and Senior Vice President of Design and Construction at DFS Group and Le Bon Marché in Paris. From 2021 to 2025, he was Senior Advisor to the Chairman, CEO and Executive Vice President of Moët Hennessy.
Roche said, “I’m delighted to speak at this important event, and I hope to provide the travel retail industry with an alternative perspective on the challenges it faces in identifying, understanding and addressing the enormous shifts we are seeing in shopper behaviour, especially in Northeast Asia.
“If one lifestyle change has accelerated in the last ten-plus years, affecting how consumers interface with most if not all forms of travel, retailing, hospitality, workplace and entertainment industries, it is the ‘blurring of the lines’ – across everything. All modern consumer experiences have become blurred. We live in a world of multi-tasking and multi-experiencing in real time.
“Traditional retailing is a player in a very new game where there are no rules defining what is retail vs hospitality vs entertainment vs leisure time vs workplace. We buy when we’re inspired, transacting those purchases from the palm of our hand.”
APTRA President and Group Chief Executive, King Power Group (Hong Kong) Sunil Tuli added, “We are delighted to welcome Kevin Roche to join us at the APTRA Northeast Asia Forum where our focus is to address post-COVID challenges in the region, particularly the industry’s reset and the urgent need to reconnect with evolving consumer expectations.
“Despite travel’s recovery, there is a widening gap between travel retail’s offer and what travellers want, as consumer behaviour and the impact of social media have shifted across all generations.
“We must move beyond transactional retail by understanding shopper emotional and experiential motivations, and we value Kevin’s expertise in helping us address these issues with new, blended consumer-centric retail strategies.”
The APTRA Northeast Asia Forum will feature detailed consumer research and insights from industry experts, including China Trading Desk and m1nd-set.
Panel discussions will highlight category trends with market updates from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
Delegate tickets are US$600 per person, inclusive of the full day of plenary sessions on 4 December, evening receptions on 3 and 4 December, and a boat trip with lunch on Po Toi Island on 5 December.
APTRA has negotiated preferential rates at the conference venue, the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel. Registration and hotel bookings can be made via the event registration site. ✈
