SINGAPORE. Welcome to Moodie Davitt Live, our rolling coverage of the TFWA Asia Pacific show in Singapore (10-14 May).
Once again The Moodie Davitt Report team was at the show in forced to bring you highlights of the week in words, photos and video, in association with our partners KOSÉ Travel Retail, Ricola and Travel Blue.
Our representatives – President Dermot Davitt, Publisher Irene Revilla, Senior International Account Manager Aran Turner, Brands Director Hannah Tan, Chief China Representative Zhang Yimei and Moodie Davitt STUDIO Filmmaker and Editor Alexander Roux – met exhibitors and visitors during a busy week.
Here are some standout moments.
THURSDAY 13 MAY
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WEDNESDAY 13 MAY
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7:30am
There is a fantastic buzz this morning in front of ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, in response to Avolta and World Future Enterprises inviting show delegates to lace up their running shoes for a 5km Run/Walk in support of #KickCancerThon, the travel retail campaign to raise funds and visibility for cancer research.
In line with the campaign’s ‘global + local’ philosophy, all funds raised will be donated to Children’s Cancer Foundation Singapore, an outstanding Social Service Agency whose mission is to improve the quality of life of children with cancer and their families impacted by the disease.
Anyone unable to participate can still make a donation via https://www.giving.sg/donate/campaign/5-km-run–walk-for-children
Donations are requested from S$50 per person (US$39) with generous dollar for dollar matching to a S$5,000/US$3,900 cap.
#KickCancerThon continues to attract amazing support from our business community globally. Click here for our latest coverage. We will bring you more remarkable stories this week as the campaign nears its conclusion.
Over the years, Children’s Cancer Foundation has helped more than 4,000 children and their families at different stages of the illness and recovery.
#KickCancerThon is the brainchild of the late Sinead Moodie, who was Chief Operating Officer for The Moodie Davitt Report at the time of the campaign’s launch.
As revealed in her August 2025 Blog, Sinead was diagnosed last July with NUT Carcinoma Lung Cancer, a rare, ultra-aggressive variant of the disease. She subsequently underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
Tragically, Sinead lost her battle for life on 1 February, the very same day #KickCancerThon officially kicked off. The campaign continues in her honour.
TUESDAY 12 MAY
9pm
The Moodie Davitt Report and KOSÉ Travel Retail teams celebrated their ongoing partnership at the Estiatorio Milos restaurant at Marina Bay Sands
5pm
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La Martiniquaise-Bardinet showcased LABEL 5 8 Year Old, the first travel retail-exclusive expression from blended Scotch whisky house LABEL 5 with a special tasting.
The expression rolled out across key travel retail locations in May, supported by targeted regional marketing activations. It is available at a recommended retail price of £30 and is bottled at 41.2% ABV.
LABEL 5 8 Year Old is a blend of selected malt and grain whiskies, matured in American bourbon and Spanish oloroso casks. The 8 Year Old was crafted to showcase the brand’s evolving style while remaining true to its accessible, balanced character.
Korean chefs from three generations came together at TFWA Asia Pacific’s Taste of the World to present a culinary showcase that bridged heritage, innovation and modern gastronomy.
From traditional mastery to contemporary interpretation, the experience reflected the evolution of Korean cuisine across generations while connecting the travel retail community through culture and storytelling.
Presented in Singapore through a collaboration with World Future Enterprises and Manimal Tribe, the activation highlighted the power of gastronomy as a cross-border platform for cultural exchange and global connection.
Pictured above are (from left) Chef Young-Suk Lee, TFWA President Sarah Branquinho, Chef Ji-Hyung Choi, Chef Woo-Young Jung, Chef Dae Young Kim and World Future Enterprises Founder Tonya Tan.
12pm
Shiseido Deputy Managing Director, Travel Retail Global Business Division and General Manager, Travel Retail Asia Adele Zhang gave an overview of the Japanese beauty company’s performance in Asia Pacific on her first media briefing since assuming the role. She said, “Market performance across the region has been very mixed.
“We’ve received positive news from Hainan, driven by the Free Trade Port policy and strong support from the central government, which has boosted traffic and strengthened travel retail sales performance.
“At the same time, we’re seeing structural shifts in China’s retail landscape. In airports such as Shanghai and Beijing, new retailers have entered the market, creating some disruption during this transition period. We are closely monitoring the situation and hope conditions will stabilise in the second half of the year so the market can return to growth, but it remains challenging at the moment.”
Stay tuned for our full interview soon.
MONDAY 11 MAY
TFWA Asia Pacific Conference & Exhibition
Following last night’s well-attended Welcome Cocktail it’s down to formal business today with TFWA Asia Pacific underway, beginning with the always much-anticipated Conference. Scroll up from the foot of the story to see how things are unfolding.
9pm
6pm
Immersion, innovation and exclusivity took centre stage as L’Oréal Travel Retail hosted its annual cocktail event, unveiling a booth packed with travel retail-exclusive concepts, campaigns and activations spanning brands from Miu Miu and Prada Beauty to Aesop and Kérastase.
L’Oréal Travel Retail President & Managing Director Eva Yu said: “People often say that travel retail is not just a channel, and I fully agree. Travel retail is a gateway for international travellers and consumers.
“At the same time, travellers are evolving, along with their reasons for travel and consumption. By 2028, 35% of global travel retail consumers will come from the Gen Z population. That is exactly what makes this industry so exciting and dynamic.
“The key question for all of us is how we evolve our environments and experiences to better engage these travellers.”
She added: “At L’Oréal, we are committed to transforming retail spaces into spaces of discovery and excitement. We continue to invest in immersive experiences and in enhancing the consumer journey for travellers. We are also creating iconic flagships and brand playgrounds that deliver differentiated experiences and offers.
“As an industry, we must navigate this evolution together, and your expertise and partnership will be essential throughout this journey.”
L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific Managing Director Jesús Abia took guests on a tour of the L’Oréal Travel Retail booth showcasing the group’s ‘Entertainment Destination’ ethos through a series of captivating activations, designed specifically for the channel.
He said: “This cocktail event is also becoming a tradition for the industry. This is the second year we are hosting it during TFWA Singapore with all our stakeholders, and I think that is very important.
“Everything you will see in this pavilion has been created exclusively for travel retail. That is the first key message. The second is that every concept here is fully implementable in airport stores tomorrow. These are not ideas or prototypes – they are real concepts that can be brought to life immediately.
“So the two messages I want you to remember are differentiation and implementation.”
4pm
Mondelez World Travel Retail Marketing Director Category, Shopper & Customer, Anna Somogyi shared key findings and real examples from across the Mondelez WTR portfolio in a fascinating Agora session designed to inspire all categories and brands.
The session also featured a Toblerone Crispy Caramel guided tasting experience and an exclusive prize draw where one lucky person won a hyper-exclusive Toblerone Strawberry Matcha bar.
Somogyi’s three key takeaways for audience members were for heart, mind and partnerships. She said: “For heart, every brand needs to think about how they can generate value for passengers and how they can boost experiences. For mind, we need to use data to ensure everything we do is relevant for the occasion and turn current purchase barriers into opportunities.
“In terms of partnerships, Mondelez cannot do all this alone. It’s an industry-wide effort.”
She added, “With more innovation and more exciting things, we will turn this industry into a fun experience where we generate more growth for all.”
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3:30pm
The opening Agora session featured an insightful, forward-looking session with TFWA Managing Director Frank Waechter and L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific Managing Director Jesús Abia.
Commenting on the key pillars of L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific’s consumercentric strategy, Abia said: “The future of travel retail is not point-of-sale but point-of-discovery and point-of-experience. Consumercentricity is all about having an augmented traveller journey. We have to start engaging our consumers before they travel.
“The most important thing is understanding the consumer,” he added. “I think we have been lagging behind in this regard as an industry. We have more nationalities and consumer needs, and we need to better understand the consumer. If we do that, we can curate the right offer that is relevant to them.
“With the portfolio we have, especially with the integration of Kering Beauty, we are well equipped to unlock new growth opportunities.”
As reported, L’Oréal this week posted a +4.4% (reported, +3.5% like-for-like) year-on-year increase in first-quarter sales to €11.73 billion. The company said it moderately outperformed the global beauty market.
According to Abia, L’Oréal has offset headwinds in the key Hainan offshore duty-free market with heavy customer-facing investment. “It’s very nice to see double-digit growth in Hainan. The consumers are back and they are hungry.
“In March, we launched our first multi-division activation in Hainan with China Duty Free Group for our brands Kérastase, SkinCeuticals and YSL Beauty. This was really a masterclass in retailtainment.
“40% of consumers who purchased at the Skinceuticals pop-up in Hainan were new to the brand. At the YSL Beauty activation there was a 90% conversion rate. For Kérastase, we had 10 million impressions with the appearance of Chinese actress Jang Mi.
“We are projected to have 750 million additional beauty consumers in 2030. What we need to ask ourselves is ‘What is the role of travel retail with these consumers?’ At L’Oréal, we really believe that travel retail is a very powerful recruitment channel.”
Abia ended the session on a positive note. He said, “Sky’s the limit for L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific.”
2pm
12:45pm
12:30pm
11:30am
Michelin-starred Chef Akira Back has 28 restaurants globally. Back said hiring is crucial in scaling a successful F&B business. He added: “After the third restaurant, I realised that my team has to be better than me. In baseball terms, I’m their coach so I had to hire hitters and know which people can hit the home runs. The more restaurants we open, the easier it becomes because we are constantly learning.”
11:15am
How innovation is redefining value creation and raising the bar for customer experience was the critical question addressed in a quickfire presentation by INSEAD Professor of Strategy Hyunjin Kim. She set her thinking against the backdrop of how consumer behaviour is being reshaped by technology.
AI capability rarely if ever translates into business performance, Kim argued.
“Most companies think narrowly about AI,” she said, restricting it to using chatbots or improving emails. The real question, she said, is to ask where AI “maps into your current production process or solves business bottlenecks”.
She urged companies to rethink the strategies that become possible with AI.
“Once you have freed up capacity, you are free to think about what your brand can become. Let’s ask, what can we build that was impossible before? Those companies that are pulling away are those not just adopting AI, but reimagining their strategies and the future of what they can become.”
10:50am
09:40am
In a breezy address about the state of the world today, Singapore’s distinguished former diplomat and two-time Ambassador to the United Nations Kishore Mahbubani assessed how economies and travel flows are being disrupted, yet his key message was a positive one.
He said that “the forces of globalisation are alive and well” even in the face of protectionism and trade barriers imposed by the USA and other states.
He noted how Singapore is the most global economy in the world, and highlighted how China’s success has boosted global economic growth and generated a system that is far more productive than ever. ‘It’s better for the world when big countries like China and India succeed,” he said.
He took an encouragingly optimistic future about the world tomorrow. “The world has shrunk. You cannot separate humanity any more. Our destiny is intertwined and we are all in the same boat. Yes we may have temporary retreats by countries, but most realise that you have to keep opening yourself up to succeed.”
09:30am
APTRA President CEO Sunil Tuli shared an overview of how geopolitical tensions, rising fuel prices and shifting consumer demographics are impacting Asia Pacific travel retail.
He said, “In turbulent political times, the role of trade associations in protecting the health of the industry has never been more important.”
Highlighting India as a case study for APTRA’s advocacy efforts, Tuli said: “India is becoming travel retail’s fastest-growing market. In India, APTRA has worked closely advocating for an increase in arrival duty-free allowances. In February 2026, the Federal Government increased the value to approximately US$800. We collectively believe there is a robust case to achieve more.”
Tuli added: “APTRA’s goal is to unite and connect the industry. In times like this, the interdependence of travel retail is more important than ever. Crisis is the biggest moment for mutual support and empathy.
“The challenges are significant but so are opportunities. By working together and sharing insights we can navigate these turbulent times and grow stronger together.”
09:05am
To begin the Monday conference, TFWA President Sarah Branquinho delivered a strong, thoughtful and data-rich opening address as she reflected on the evolution of the Asia Pacific market.
While acknowledging the many external challenges facing the sector, Branquinho noted Asia Pacific remains a growth driver of global travel, with seven of the world’s ten busiest air routes in the region.
Branquinho also presented the latest estimates of global sales from Generation, with travel retail turnover up +2.5% year-on-year to US$75.9 billion in 2025.
On the bigger picture, she said: “Demand is strong but something fundamental has shifted. The Asia Pacific customer remains key with high in-store footfall and spend. But today’s shoppers are purposeful, and have an interest in differentiation and premium options. We need to stay abreast of these developments to take advantage of the opportunities.”
Branquinho concluded by highlighting what she termed TFWA Asia Pacific’s status as “a platform for the future of travel retail”, with many innovations launched in 2026 from World of Innovation to Taste of the World. We will bring you more from events in these spaces in coming days.
9am
SUNDAY 10 MAY
Welcome Cocktail
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APTRA NETWORKING LUNCH
