SINGAPORE. Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has confirmed that, following a “thorough and exhaustive process”, its Management Committee has chosen Singapore as the city to host the TFWA Asia Pacific and GATE ONE events in 2007, 2008 and possibly 2009.
Participant feedback was fairly equally split between moving the events to a new location and staying in Singapore, but 85% of those interviewed said they would not favour moving to another city if it meant a greater than 10% price increase for exhibition space, related services and hotels.
In addition, “given the strong interest in the Chinese duty free market”, TFWA’s Management Committee has given a mandate to the TFWA executive team to explore the possibility of hosting a conference in Shanghai in 2007, TFWA said in a statement.
It added: “A number of key duty free and travel organisations in China and the region, including DFS Group, Sunrise and the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association, have already expressed their strong support for such a venture. The project will be developed in the coming months.”
GATE ONE and TFWA Asia Pacific 2006 will be held in the Singapore Suntec Centre on 15-17 May and 16-19 May respectively.
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