Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Strange Nature Gin from New Zealand, celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
FRANCE. Our latest selection comes courtesy of Extime Duty Free Paris Executive President Guy Bodescot, who posted some memorable images on LinkedIn about the contribution of Extime teams to the Paris Olympic Games.
Extime Duty Free is the partnership between Groupe ADP and Lagardère Travel Retail for retailing at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. Other Extime joint ventures manage F&B, lounges and advertising.
Extime team members helped to guide departing athletes through the stores, using cultural and language skills across 44 nationalities and international origins.
Bodescot highlighted the work of the Chinese speaker sales force, the concierge team and others as they ensured a smooth journey for the athletes.
He added: “Service, hospitality and making a memorable event were not only commercially driven. Extime Duty Free Paris, Extime Media, Extime Travel Essentials and Extime Lounges joined forces to donate €40,000 to our nearby Sport Association, ‘Sport dans la ville’, aiming at supporting youngsters through sport practicing to find their ways towards a stable job and full integration into their communities.”
The images depict athletes at the Extime Duty Free shops. Bodescot singled out the generosity of the Chinese team including Pan Zhanle (three gold medals) and Qin Haiyang (gold and silver), who presented a signed Olympic Games t-shirt to the Extime team, and saluted many others from Algeria, Greece, USA, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Japan, Philippines, Poland, Norway, Indonesia, Spain and more.
The work of the Paris airports’ Extime teams extended to a long period of planning at Paris CDG and Orly airports in the preceding months and “a strong commitment to creating a positive and heartful impact on all passengers, athletes, friends and families from all nations”, noted Bodescot.
As part of the preparations, Extime hired key former French Olympic athletes to coach its sales and hospitality teams in advance of the event, while three team members from the 2,000-strong staff were also selected as Olympic torchbearers. Seven team members took part in a ‘Marathon for all’ initiative that allowed Parisians to run the marathon course before the Games. And 500 members of the Extime teams took seats at various Olympic competitions, arranged through the company.
As Bodescot added, there is much more to come. “We are only halfway – the Paralympics will start soon.” ✈
