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INDIA. The ‘Incredible India’ conference concluded this afternoon in Delhi, having drawn around 200 delegates to an event that underlined the intense interest in the country’s fast-evolving duty free market.
The conference was organised by the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) with a tremendous amount of leg-work and support from Alpha Asia. APTRA President Sunil Tuli told delegates: “Between 2008 and 2011 India has a total of 450 aircraft on order”¦ that’s the highest number of aircraft ordered within a single window for any country. Indian airports handled 71.0 million domestic passengers in 2006/07, posting growth of almost 40% year-on-year, and over 25 million international passengers, up by +15%.
“The job – and it’s a big, challenging job – for the duty free and travel retail industry is first to keep pace with that growth curve and secondly to eventually outstrip it. With the modernisations of Mumbai and Delhi airports, the opening of greenfield airports such as Bangalore and Hyderabad, and the injection of retail professionalism in locations like Cochin, there are no excuses any more. Duty free and travel retail can be part of Incredible India too. This conference is an important benchmark along the way.”
COMMENT: This was an unusually informative conference. In fact its only fault was that there were simply too many speakers (and too many who failed to keep to their time slots) and as a result the event ran over time on both days. But the quality of many presentations was first-rate, the networking brought together all the country’s travel retailers, many of the leading airport commercial managers and a good cross-section of brands. Dilip Kumar, CEO of Hidesign gave a particularly strong speech and a telling insight into the values behind luxury, as part of an excellent panel discussion on India’s luxury market.
And if anyone was in any doubt, Carlo Bernasconi’s nicely articulated, strongly visual presentation on The Nuance Group/Shoppers’ Stop partnership’s plans for Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai (domestic) airports made it clear that the long-awaited, oft-promised ‘new era’ for Indian travel retail has finally arrived.
Below are some of the images from the event.
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(Left) Bangalore International Airport Limited Chief Commercial Officer Stefan Widrig unveiled plans for the exciting new greenfield airport; (Right) APTRA President Sunil Tuli: “Duty free in India has been a small and under-developed channel in the past… there are no excuses any more” | |
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(Left) Ankur Vashisht, General Manager (Civil) at Delhi International Airport Limited; (Right) Airports Authority of India Executive Director Mr Narayanan | |
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(Left) Airports Authority of India Executive Director Mr Narayanan with ITDC Vice President NK Piplani; (Right) Centaur Travel Retail President and King Power Traveler President Rakhita Jayawardena leads the inflight session | |
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(Left) APTRA President Sunil Tuli with GTR Sales Director David Spillane and Centaur Travel Retail’s Rakhita Jayawardena; (Right) Madhu Joshi, Business Development Director India for Belkin, was part of an excellent session on the future for luxury items in India | |
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(Left) Dilip Kapur, Founder and President of Hidesign, underlined India’s great heritage in a superb and challenging presentation; (Right) Carlo Bernasconi told delegates of The Nuance Group/Shoppers’ Stop partnership’s exciting plans for the Indian duty free market in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai | |
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Three of India’s ‘Big Four’ in travel retail: Mahendra Thakar of Flemingo International, Paul Topping of Alpha Future and Carlo Bernasconi of The Nuance Group/Shoppers’ Stop partnership | |
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(Left) Whyte & Mackay’s ‘Bollywood’ evening was alive with colour and theatre; (Right) Teresa De Bedmar, General Manager for Aldeasa, Atul Ahuja, Director of Flemingo International, and Paul Topping Managing Director of Alpha Asia | |
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(Left) Nuance’s Carlo Bernasconi, Martin Moodie, Rakesh Chopra of Alpha Future, Aldeasa’s Teresa De Bedmar, Atul Ahuja of Flemingo International and Alpha Asia’s Paul Topping; (Right) ITDC Chairman Parvez Dewan outlined the state-owned retailer’s plans to expand into downtown and special economic zone shopping | |
EARLIER PICTURES FROM OUR DAY ONE REPORT
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(Left) AM Shabeer, General Manager of Cochin International Airport with Paul Topping, Alpha Asia Managing Director (Right) Bangalore International Airport Limited’s Head Centre Management Rajiv Kapool (right) and Manager Commercial Centre S Shriram (left) with The Nuance Group India Vice President Retail Services & Distribution Shashi Kapur (centre) | |
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(Left) The Aldeasa/ITDC partnership is set for take-off in Mumbai next month: Here Aldeasa India General Manager Teresa De Bedmar chats with ITDC Vice President NK Piplani (right) with Pradeep Parmar of Travel Blue in Dubai; (Right) Paul Topping and APTRA President Sunil Tuli in sparkling mood after raising over US$5,000 for The Smile Train India – the leading children’s cleft lip and palate charity. Tuli bid US$1,200 for a case of Moët & Chandon to boost the charity’s efforts in India | |
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(Left) APTRA representative Andrew McLeod of British American Tobacco greets guests at the opening cocktail on behalf of TFWA, which sponsored the welcome; APTRA President Sunil Tuli (left) joins him on stage; (Right) NK Piplani, ITDC Vice President with Chethika Hapugalle, Alpha Asia Regional Communication & Marketing Manager, who has worked tirelessly to help organise Incredible India | |
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Visitors have poured in from around the world for the APTRA event, which offers an opportunity to see Indian duty free at first hand (Alpha’s Arrivals shop in Delhi is pictured) and to network with all the key industry players | |
