Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Duty Free Global from Ireland, celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
SENEGAL. Today’s choice of images comes from Dakar, where I spent much of last week discovering stories of ambition, energy, innovation, community commitment and how local talent is flourishing in aviation and travel retail in the capital of Senegal, writes Dermot Davitt.
I visited with Lagardère Travel Retail – which has been running stores at Dakar Blaise Diagne International Airport since 2017 – and was hosted in particular by the ebullient and energetic Sountou Bousso, CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail West, Central & East Africa, along with his top-class team.
We will tell the tale of our visit via our platforms soon, but for now here are some highlights and key takeaways, in words and images.
While Paris-based Lagardère Travel Retail is resoundingly a French retail-to-dining player, the fast-growing regional division out of Dakar is proudly and unmistakably African, and Senegalese in particular, both across management and staff.
Women are well represented alongside men at senior level, and most of the key decision makers in that team are under 40 years old. That’s empowerment of a region and its people at work.
There’s a strong spirit of creativity and innovation here. Led by Bousso since 2020, the division has a track record of developing its own in-house brands for the regional market. That’s the case in dining, but also in retail.
One of our favourite stories is how the CASE BI store at Dakar Airport came to life in early 2026 as a luxury boutique featuring only artisanal Senegalese brands across fashion & accessories. Basket spends of €1,000 are not uncommon on top-quality handbags, one-of-a-kind ready-to-wear items or handmade jewellery in a lovely, upscale and elegant store setting airside.
This in turn complements the 700sq m Aelia Duty Free store that has been carefully thought out in design, layout and mix, with a powerful emphasis on local goods, a vast beauty offer with heavy brand investment plus tailored offers from a consumer technology back wall to luxury bays.
Then there is something completely different in food & beverage concept Képar Café, which Lagardère Travel Retail introduced four years ago as a “hyper-localised” restaurant and which is now present in Mauritania and in Senegal at motorway rest and service area Yéba South, not far from Dakar Airport.
Aside from the excellent food – we dined on a locally inspired chicken and rice dish for lunch last Tuesday – the story here is one of community and opportunity. Menus have been developed by local chefs, the design and furniture of the restaurants have been created and manufactured by local craftsmen, and the majority of the staff were hired from Yéba village.
We heard the detailed story from Alioune Pouye, Mayor of the municipality of Sebikotane (of which Yéba is part), alongside his team and local community leaders (interview to follow). Crucially we also heard from staff members from that community who, with very little work available otherwise, were hired by Lagardère Travel Retail to run Képar Café.
They spoke of the pride and dignity this lends to their lives and the benefits that a living wage presents to them, their families and the community.
A visit to the café and to practically any hotel, restaurant or store, is to gain a sense of the meaning of the Wolof word ‘Teranga’. This is an idea of hospitality that goes far beyond treating guests well; it is about resonating warmth, about showing generosity, of making one feel at home by sharing.
It is something you can see come to life wherever you go, and is used by many businesses as part of their identities. The word has been adopted by Senegal’s famed football team too, dubbed the ‘Lions of Teranga’.
Perhaps it helps to explain why Senegal can lean on a history since independence in 1959 of consistent internal peace, and an optimism in those we met that even though times can be harsh, the future can be better.
That spirit is alive and well in the team that runs Dakar Airport; in a one-to-one interview we learned much about the airport’s positioning and ambitions for the location to be a true regional hub in coming years from Aéroport International Blaise Diagne (AIBD) Director General Cheikh Mamadou Abiboulaye Dieye.
While common problems of connectivity and aviation infrastructure persist, there are reasons to be upbeat too.
Dieye spelled out the pioneering role of Dakar as an aviation hotspot, highlighted Dakar’s route network to all global regions and spoke of a growth trajectory to more than treble passenger volumes to 10 million, while expanding the non-aeronautical business both in the terminal and through the airport’s vast land assets.
Lagardère Travel Retail is playing its part in that positioning and is telling a story of its own high ambition too.
In under ten years, the company’s Africa network has gone from zero to eight markets. Sountou Bousso is not shy of declaring his goal to open one new market per year, and to double the size of the business in three to five years.
That will come, he says, not only by adding contracts but by store investment, accelerating the drive to lift retailing standards and boosting conversion through enhanced service and brand offerings, alongside a vision for food & beverage plus a potential expansion into other channels (maritime, diplomatic) beyond airports.
Having seen first-hand and in detail how the operation runs in this flagship market for the travel retailer, and the pride and energy of its people, led by Bousso himself, do not bet against those lofty ambitions fast becoming reality. ✈
