ASIA/PACIFIC. The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) has announced the appointment of Chanel Global Travel Retail Director Hervé Ducros to its board.
His appointment follows Chanel Director Travel Retail Asia Pacific Fabrice Hochet’s relocation to Europe.
APTRA President Sunil Tuli commented: “Chanel is an important voice on the APTRA board, providing unrivalled experience and insight in fragrance and beauty, together with luxury fashion and accessories. Hervé’s knowledge of both Asia Pacific and his global perspective of industry dynamics will be extremely valuable to the association.
“On behalf of the APTRA board I would like to thank Fabrice for giving his time and valuable contribution over the past couple of years and to wish him and his family well as they relocate to Europe.”
“It is a great pleasure to join the board of APTRA to represent the fragrance and beauty category,” Ducros said.
“I would like to thank Sunil Tuli and the APTRA board members for their trust. They can be assured of my personal commitment and active participation to serve the association in its capacity to influence the travel retail industry in Asia Pacific and contribute to business recovery.”
Earlier this week, the APTRA Exchange hosted a two-hour ‘Changing Dynamics in Asia Pacific’ session during TFWA Asia Pacific Live. It marked the association’s first at-scale, in-person event in its home city state of Singapore for three years.
It included a presentation from ForwardKeys featuring the latest traveller statistics globally and for Asia Pacific.
According to ForwardKeys, Q2 data recovery shows positive acceleration, despite the uneven rebound in Asia Pacific sub-regions to date.
India is close to reaching pre-pandemic levels with bookings for Q2 being only -13% behind 2019, while arrivals in Q1 were -59% behind. Travel to Southeast Asia and Oceania in Q2 registered a double-digit recovery when compared to Q1’s performance, with the Philippines, Singapore and Fiji recovering faster than any other major destinations in the region.
The statistics also indicated that South Korea is outperforming in Northeast Asia since reopening to international travellers from 1 April.
The presentation was followed by a panel addressing changing dynamics in the wines and spirits category, including consumer trends in emerging categories such as craft and local brands and the rise of omnichannel shopping preferences. Discussions touched on managing supply chain challenges and the growing need to act sustainably on shipments.
The APTRA Exchange concluded with a focus on CSR from a business perspective including the lifecycle of products and store furniture and the growing requirements of all stakeholders to address sustainability in tenders and business operations.
