INTERNATIONAL. Welcome to this recap of our rolling coverage of TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, brought to you in association with Lindt, Goldkenn and Bath & Body Works.
Throughout show week we brought readers highlights from the biggest annual gathering of the travel retail industry in words, images and video.
Click here for our blockbuster Magazine and Category Insight supplements, produced specially for the event.
THURSDAY 2 OCTOBER
A signing off note: the 2025 TFWA World Exhibition & Conference will make a return to Cannes from 27 September to 1 October 2026. The conference will be held on the Monday morning (28 September). Further details of the 2026 edition will be announced in due course.
WEDNESDAY 1 OCTOBER
L’Oréal Travel Retail hosted its annual media briefing this morning showcasing its new vision for elevating experiences in travel retail. Brands such as Lancôme, La Roche-Posay, YSL Beauty, Kiehl’s, Helena Rubinstein and Kérastase showcased new ‘shoppertainment’ innovations that included everything from face massage rituals to haircare analysis, sun protection scans and virtual try-on.
During the event, L’Oréal Travel Retail President Emmanuel Goulin announced that he has been appointed to the key role of Europe President, succeeding Vianney Derville.
Eva Yu takes over from Goulin as President of Travel Retail. The highly rated executive will also join L’Oréal’s extended Executive Committee. Yu, currently President and Managing Director of L’Oréal Hong Kong, will divide her time between Paris and Singapore to maintain proximity to teams and to the business’s strategic centre in Asia.
Goulin commented, “I’m very confident that Eva’s fantastic experience at APAC Travel Retail will bring this business and team to new heights.
“If we want to leverage fully the appetite for travel and solve our conversion issue we have to re-enchant our channel and bring the level of experience up. Travel retail has been too transactional in the past and the travellers of tomorrow expect to have experiences and we at L’Oréal Travel Retail aim to deliver.”
There was great spirit in evidence at the annual Vienna Airport dinner at the Annex Beach Restaurant in Cannes. Hosted by the genial Vienna Airport Senior Vice President Centre Management Philipp Ahrens, airport partners and friends gathered to enjoy fine food and wines.
These are exciting times on the commercial front at the airport, with a number of retail and food & beverage contracts to be announced in the near future, ahead of the much-anticipated €420 million southern terminal expansion opening in Q2 2027.
The airport has pledged to deliver a strong Austrian sense of place in 10,000sq m of new high-quality retail and food & beverage space.
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report, Ahrens said decisions on tender bids for food & beverage and duty-paid retail concessions will be made soon, with announcements expected by the end of November.
“I’m very excited about it and it’s crunch time now for us in the concession decision process,” he commented.
Ahrens said we can expect multiple operators to be announced for both F&B, including numerous sense of place dining venues, and retail. “We want to spread the experience our guests will receive over the offerings of many operators. We have a lot up our sleeve and I’m very much looking forward to taking those decisions in the coming weeks.”
Ahrens said he is enjoying the commercial challenges surrounding the terminal extension, describing it as the most exciting period of his career.
He concluded: “I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to handle such a wonderful building for so many travelling guests and to really deliver something that makes travel more enjoyable. I’m motivated to get this done and to really deliver something spectacular.
“It will have something to offer for everybody, not only for each level financially but also emotionally.”
TUESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER
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MONDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
Proximo Spirits brand 1800 Tequila launched Triple Cask Añejo with a press event during the TFWA World Exhibition today.
The travel retail-exclusive tequila product – in a 1-litre format at 40% ABV – is set to roll out exclusively in travel retail from 2026.
The tequila is crafted from 100% blue agave and aged in a combination of French oak, American oak and Cabernet Sauvignon wine casks.
The Triple Cask Añejo was conceived as part of a series that pays tribute to Founder Juan Francisco Beckmann, who championed the idea that tequila could stand alongside the world’s finest whiskies and Cognacs. The project is now carried forward by his son, Juan Domingo Beckmann.
Positioned as an ultra-premium product, it lived up to that claim at the press event, with several journalists taken aback by the quality of the flavour during a tasting session.
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report on Proximo’s SUD yacht, the company’s Global Travel Retail Marketing Director Chris Hill said: “We were sitting with a customer here earlier who was not a tequila fan but he said he was converted immediately after tasting Triple Cask Añejo.
“We find that when we show people our higher-quality tequilas that they’re always surprised and it just smashes all their preconceptions. The hard part is getting them to try it. Once we break that barrier we find that they’re very warm to the category.”
Discussing 1800 Tequila’s brand story, highlighted in a compelling video during the press event, he commented: “The fact that the Beckman family are the original founders of the tequila category gives us a rich position to speak from in terms of travel retail activations.
“Everything that you saw in there is a legacy story of the family, and with 11 generations comes a lot of expertise, not only in the making of tequila, but also in the cultivation of agave, which has to be a very high quality to produce a high-quality liquid.”
Hill noted Proximo will be looking to sell Triple Cask Añejo in all major global travel retail markets with big-name travel retailers. The roll-out will be supported by airport activations from the beginning of 2026.
There was an eye-catching holiday island theme from Sterling Perfumes at one of the biggest and most colourful stands at the TFWA World Exhibition. The backdrop was chosen to launch Island Breeze, the latest addition to the Armaf flagship range.
Also making its Sterling debut outside the USA was the Odyssey line-up, featuring popular gourmand scents – Marshmallow, Black Forest, Toffee Coffee, Ba Ha Mas and Go Mango.
Speaking at the launch were (from above left) Sterling Perfumes Global Business Head Gautam Siyal; Business Development Director Evarist Peter Rigo; and Global Head of Marketing Nayana Tharoor. Siyal said the aim is to get Armaf perfumes into 100 duty-free stores across the world by the end of 2026.
Press attending were treated to non-alcoholic cocktails at the launch event (below).
NBA Champion Tony Parker talked about his personal journey from his multi-cultural beginnings in Belgium and France to NBA stardom. He touched on resilience, leadership and the similarities between travel retail and basketball in terms of sportsmanship and thriving in a competitive environment.
He said: “The average NBA career is four years and I was blessed to have played 18 years in the NBA. My parents always told me to prepare for life after my basketball career. Magic Johnson gave me the best career advice; he told me to create my network while I was playing and leverage them to set myself up for the future. I started my career at 15 years old and so I focused on meeting a lot of CEOs and learning from them.
“In the business world, same as with basketball, you have to earn respect and you do this by being consistent and reliable. As a leader you have to have a vision and people will follow you if you show up for them.”
Parker, who also played in the French National Team and owns the ASVEL basketball team in Lyon, discussed his role in helping aspiring athletes in France build careers in the industry through the Tony Parker Adéquat Academy.
He said: “A lot of athletes undergo a depression after they retire and my parents helped me build mental fortitude to deal with that. They always prepared me to deal with the pressures of being an athlete and I want to help aspiring athletes with that too. Having mental strength and how you handle pressure is the difference between OK players and great players.”
10AM
Kearney Partner and Head of National Transformations Institute Rudolph Lohmeyer offered a sharp assessment of today’s geopolitical and economic realignment.
He explored the intersection of trade, investment and statecraft, and examined how shifting alliances, fragmented markets and increasing military escalation are reshaping the global landscape.
Lohmeyer believes that the world is in a critical juncture. He said: “The global operating environment is going into an exceptionally fragile near-term transition to a reordered future. The stabilising forces of the international order are weakening, and the use of force is again on the rise as an instrument of national power.
“These changing incentives and the increasing frequency of strategic shocks are reshaping alliances, pointing to the shape of a new, multipolar order.”
He highlighted how the world is facing record levels of public debt and military expenditure amid diminishing birth rates. He also highlighted the acceleration of climate change and extreme weather events such as Typhoon Ragasa as major factors in driving global uncertainty.
Speaking on climate change, Lohmeyer described the recent withdrawal of the USA from the Paris Agreement as a tragedy. He said, “As perceived national interests diverge and global institutions weaken, the environmental policy and regulatory landscape is atomising.”
He concluded by saying: “Uncertainty is permanent but this disorder is not. The next three to five years will be extremely fragile, but the challenge is in how your industry can navigate this disorder to thrive in the future. Through 2030, the evolution of dynamics within uncertainty will decisively shape the global business environment.”
SUNDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
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Look out for a blockbuster presence from the dynamic Qatar Duty Free team in Cannes this week.
“Proud to be here in Cannes with my team, as we get ready for a busy week of connecting with our brand partners and friends,” says Qatar Airways Chief Retail and Hospitality Officer Thabet Musleh.
“I am looking forward to exchanging ideas and showcasing our latest innovations in the Qatar Airways Group passenger experience.”
