THAILAND. King Power International Group (Thailand)was the star performer in The Moodie Davitt Report’s Top 25 Travel Retailers ranking for 2015, published today.
The report ranks travel retailers by 2015 calendar year duty free and duty paid sales, stated in Euros.
In the 2014 report King Power ranked tenth, after a year adversely affected by the impact on tourism of Thailand’s political turmoil.
2015 though was an entirely different picture. King Power posted a hugely impressive and resurgent result, with sales up by close to +70%.
The company’s performance was buoyed by surging tourism arrivals and spending in Thailand, particularly from China. Total visitor numbers rocketed by +20.44% over a troubled 2014 but it was the Chinese numbers – and how well King Power catered to them – that made the real difference. In 2015 7,934,791 Mainlanders came to Thailand, representing 26.55% of total arrivals and an increase of +71% or over 3 million year-on-year. That translated into some extraordinarily busy shopping scenes in King Power’s downtown stores in particular.
The stellar 2015 result was even more notable for coming in the face of a -50% fall in the key Russian traffic (King Power’s highest spenders).
King Power reaped the benefits of diversifying its downtown shopping operations. The new King Power Srivaree Downtown Complex was targeted at the Chinese shopper and proved a highly successful alternative to the company’s flagship Downtown Duty Free Complex on Rangnam Road.
2016 sales are sure to be boosted by the opening late last year of a 26,312sq m duty free shopping mall in downtown Phuket. The THB4.5 billion (US$125 million) move transformed the luxury shopping offer on the holiday island, serving both Phuket’s rising number of tourists and members of the retailer’s loyalty scheme living in the south of the country.
