CHINA. Moutai Global Travel Retail last week launched a series of airport pop-up stores in partnership with China National Service Corporation (CNSC), Sinopharm Group’s travel retail arm.
The activation introduced four pop-up spaces at airport departures duty-free stores in Chongqing, Nanjing, Quanzhou and Zhengzhou, plus one in the CNSC downtown duty-free store in Beijing.
The pop-ups focus on Moutai’s premium selections, and feature the brand’s high-end products alongside tasting opportunities.
Timed to coincide with the Mid-Autumn and National Day travel peak, it is designed to maximise reach and impact among outbound travellers.
The pop-up stores are open on these dates:
- CNSC Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport departures duty-free store: 22 September – 11 October;
- CNSC Beijing downtown duty-free store: 23 September – 30 September;
- CNSC Nanjing Lukou International Airport departures duty-free store: 24 September – 24 October;
- CNSC Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport departures duty-free store: 24 September – 23 October;
- CNSC Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport departures duty-free store: 24 September – 30 September.
Five cultural experiences
The activation adopts a scarcity-driven strategy of ‘limited time, limited quantity, limited locations’, aiming to transform duty-free stores into miniature Moutai cultural experience spaces. Infused with local cultural elements, each store features its own theme and characteristics.
At the Chongqing Airport store, travellers can participate in a bilingual Chinese-English riddle game using their boarding pass and receive AI-customised gifts upon completion. Customers with purchases can enjoy a traditional scroll-rubbing (an ancient artistic practice of transferring carved inscriptions onto paper with ink) experience.
The Nanjing Airport store features four Mid-Autumn-themed zones, offering activities such as zodiac stamp collection, lucky draws and special tastings.
Decorated in classic Chinese red, the Beijing downtown store offers a series of limited-time tastings. A giant tilted liquor bottle art installation creates a focal point, while an outdoor terrace features a special cocktail area.
The Zhengzhou Airport store highlights the city’s Central Plains cultural heritage, adding a ‘buy and pick up’ exclusive holiday service to make duty-free shopping more convenient for travellers.
The Quanzhou Airport store offers bilingual Chinese-English tastings and gifts with purchase, with a focus of introducing Moutai and traditional Chinese liquor culture to international visitors.
Travel retail: Moutai’s global gateway
Travel retail serves as a strategic linchpin in Moutai’s globalisation push. In recent years, the brand has doubled down on its pivot ‘from selling liquor to selling a lifestyle’, with its high-value-added portfolio acting as a key lever for optimising product offering and elevating brand equity.
Meanwhile, for CNSC, this travel retail event marks a step forward — leveraging the retailer’s duty-free channel strengths and joining forces with Moutai to advance brand internationalisation and help Chinese products reach global markets.
The collaboration aims to engage high-end travellers, foreign tourists and baijiu collectors.
CNSC said that more than a trading platform, duty-free retail is a gateway for cultural exchange. By leveraging its stores to showcase Chinese brands, it lays the groundwork for domestic products to enter wider international markets, CNSC added.
“This pop-up activation exemplifies collaborative innovation between a duty-free retailer and a leading Chinese brand. It represents Moutai’s culture-first approach and CNSC’s ambition to help more Chinese brands shine on the global stage,” a CNSC statement said.
“Looking ahead, we will forge deeper synergies with quality domestic brands to unlock travel retail’s full potential, and tell good Chinese stories to a worldwide audience.” ✈
