Travel Retail TV on The Moodie Report.com | |
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 | Travel Retail TV on The Moodie Report – A Presidential Perspective |
| Duty Free in the Middle East – ‘A Sense of Place’ |
| Beirut Duty Free – a stunning tale of transformation |
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MIDDLE EAST. The third annual Middle East Duty Free Association (MEDFA) conference takes place in Dubai on November 27-28. It is one of the most important events in the duty free calendar, attracting sell-out audiences each year, including in-depth representation from the region’s leading travel retailers.
On the eve of the conference, Travel Retail TV on The Moodie Report (TRTV) spoke to MEDFA President Mohamed Mounib about the key opportunities and challenges facing the business. This film was commissioned especially for TRTV and produced and edited by Marshall Lightfoot which is partnering The Moodie Report in this exciting new venture.
Mounib says the Middle East is brimming with opportunity and that sales are running at buoyant levels for most retailers. But he pulls no punches when he says the fragrances & cosmetics sector needs to get its distribution act in order or else the credibillity of the duty free channel will be eroded. With domestic items – some designed as testers and some coming from the grey market – undercutting duty free retail price points, says Mounib, something has to give.
To watch the film from the comfort of your own office, and previous editions of TRTV on The Moodie Report, simply go to the TRTV icon on the top left hand side of our home page. Or to access the interview with Mohamed Mounib click here.
ALSO SHOWING ON TRTV ON THE MOODIE REPORT
A SENSE OF PLACE: Originally commissioned by MEDFA and produced by Marshall Lightfoot, this films examines two of the region’s leading duty free retail operations, Abu Dhabi Duty Free and Dufry Emirates at Sharjah International Airport. Our film begins with Peter Marshall interviewing Abu Dhabi Deputy Managing Director Dan Cappell, who talks passionately about the retailer’s unrelenting focus on the consumer as a means of driving up footfall, penetration and average spend.
In part two, we visit Sharjah International Airport, one of the very best operations in Dufry’s impressive global network, where we talk to Dufry’s Director of Retail Operations Asia and Middle East, Jan Baljet.
BEIRUT DUTY FREE – A STUNNING TALE OF TRANSFORMATION: In our premiere edition we showcase the award-winning Beirut Duty Free, a film first shown at last year’s MEDFA conference.
The 14 May 2003 opening of phase two of Beirut Duty Free capped one of the Middle East’s most impressive airport retail transformations. Beirut Duty Free’s parent company Phoenicia Aer Rianta Company is a joint venture between Aer Rianta International-Middle East and Beirut-based Phoenicia Trading Afro Asia.
Since its opening Beirut Duty Free has seldom been out of the news. Aer Rianta International-Middle East says Beirut has now become the largest retail operation in the company’s powerful regional store network. And in late October 2004, Beirut Duty Free/Phoenicia Aer Rianta Company) deservedly won a coveted “˜Frontier’ Award for its specialist cigar store, widely acclaimed as the best in the world.
