LEBANON. PAC Beirut Duty Free, which manages the duty-free business at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, has unveiled ‘Between Home and Away’, its new long-term brand signature.
This will guide the travel retailer’s communications, customer experience, retail initiatives and digital presence in the years ahead.
Alongside the new signature, PAC Beirut Duty Free is introducing a refreshed visual identity, including a refined logo and a new colour palette inspired by Lebanon. The identity extends across the brand’s retail spaces, digital platforms, packaging, signage, uniforms and customer communications.
PAC Beirut Duty Free said the branding move marks “a shift in focus from products and promotions to travellers and the experiences surrounding every journey through Lebanon”.
A statement said, “The signature draws on a familiar truth for Lebanese travellers. Leaving is rarely a simple departure, and returning is rarely just an arrival. Each journey carries the people, places and memories left behind, as well as the anticipation of coming home.”
The first initiative under the new signature is First & Last, a brand film created by VIPMINDS US LLC and directed by Samir Syriani. Premiered on 21 July, the film appears in cinemas, on television, across digital platforms and on PAC Beirut Duty Free’s official social media channels.
A statement noted, “In Lebanon, travel has long been shaped by changing circumstances, new opportunities and the need to adapt. Almost every family has someone living abroad, someone preparing to leave or someone waiting for a loved one to return. Behind every departure is something difficult to leave behind. Behind every return is someone waiting.
“First & Last brings this shared reality to life through two travellers at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport: a man leaving Lebanon and a woman returning home. Their stories capture the emotions on either side of the journey, from the final goodbye before departure to the first welcome upon return.”
Two journeys, one experience
The film title reflects PAC Beirut Duty Free’s place in both journeys: the last familiar encounter before leaving Lebanon and the first upon returning home.
The company said, “For much of the Lebanese creative and production team behind First & Last, the story was not an abstract creative brief. The goodbyes, distance and homecomings portrayed in the film were experiences they understood personally.
“That familiarity shaped the film from concept and script through direction and production, bringing emotional honesty to the way each journey was told.”
The brand film’s original music was composed specifically for First & Last by Anthony Sahyoun, creating a distinct musical expression for the emotions surrounding departure and homecoming.
First & Last moves away from conventional retail advertising to tell a human story about travel, said the film makers.
PAC Beirut Duty Free is not positioned at the centre of the film. Instead, the brand appears as a familiar part of the passage between leaving and returning.
A statement added, “Rather than presenting travel simply as movement from one place to another, the film focuses on what each traveller carries through the journey: what he leaves behind, what she comes home to and everything felt in between.”
PAC Beirut Duty Free General Manager Antoine Massé said, “PAC Beirut Duty Free has long been part of these moments, whether someone is leaving Lebanon or coming home to it. First & Last reflects a role we have quietly played in people’s journeys, and it means a great deal to see that story told with such honesty.” ✈
