This year the event was attended by 3,194 visitors from the duty free and travel retail industry, up 3% from last year’s 3,087 and 2,905 in 2016.
These figures included representatives from 1,290 companies, up by 6% from 1,220 in 2017 and 1,186 in 2016. There were 2,534 delegates from duty free and travel retail operations, landlords and agents at this year’s event, which was the same number as last year.
The number of representatives from just duty free and travel retailers this year was 1,105 compared to 1,053 in 2017, an increase of 5%. These came from 284 companies, compared with 266 in 2017, an increase of 6.8%.
The exhibition occupied a total 10,505m2, up from 10,254m2 in 2017. A total of 309 companies exhibited, and 53 of these were new exhibitors or those returning after a break.
A total of 405 meetings were arranged through the TFWA One2One meeting service, up 5% from 385 last year. Those registered included 42 airports, 44 airlines and inflight services, and 10 cruise and ferry companies.
The association says the conference was also well attended, with 1,390 delegates hearing from a range of experts from the duty free and travel retail industry and beyond in the morning plenary session, which was up 4% from 1,332 in 2017. The afternoon workshops attracted a total of 871 delegates compared with 857 in 2017.
TFWA President, Erik Juul-Mortensen (pictured) said: “The dynamic growth we are seeing in the Asian duty free and travel retail market has once again been reflected in some truly impressive figures at this year’s TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference.
“The feedback we have had from both exhibitors and delegates has been extremely positive. The consensus has definitely been that there are plenty of good reasons to be here this week, and much good business has been done,” said Juul-Mortensen.
