CHINA. China Duty Free Group (CDFG) and The Moodie Davitt Report today formally signed an Exclusive Strategic Cooperation Partnership agreement for the Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021, on 11-15 October.
CDFG President Charles Chen and The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie completed the signing during an online ceremony today.
The power of partnership: China Duty Free Group President Charles Chen and The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie strike the landmark agreement for the Virtual Travel Retail Expo at an online ceremony on Friday
As reported, CDFG, China’s and the world’s number-one travel retailer by 2020 sales, has strongly embraced the all-digital concept and in an exciting development is creating its own dedicated digital area in the Expo, called CDFG City. There it will showcase some of its most impressive current and planned projects. A gateway presence to CDFG City will feature in the Hainan Discovery zone, a key attraction at this year’s Expo, and the Retailer Emporium.
The CDFG management, buying, branding and merchandising teams will be out in full force at the Expo (already 190 of the CDFG management have registered), both in CDFG City and Hainan Discovery, while also visiting the various brand exhibitors.
CDFG President Charles Chen will deliver the morning keynote address in the Knowledge Hub on the first day of the Expo.
Charles Chen: “Friends and partners are welcomed to come to visit our booth, ‘CDFG CITY’, and we will present you an extraordinary view of CDFG”
Introducing the ceremony, The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt said: “In 2020 China Duty Free Group became the world’s number one travel retailer by sales according to The Moodie Davitt Report’s annual Top 25 Industry ranking, up from number four in 2019 and number 19 just ten years earlier – an astonishing achievement.
“Simultaneously, China Duty Free Group’s Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex in Haitang Bay, Hainan Province has become the epicentre of the global duty free community, the lighthouse of travel retail as we call it within a sector that was otherwise plunged into darkness by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Through 2021 China Duty Free Group has gone from strength to strength and will hit new record sales highs in Hainan this year. Its excellence in digital and physical retailing; its unrivalled array of brands – and strengths of brand relationships, help makes China Duty Free Group the modern day powerhouse of travel retail.
“And there is more excitement to come as China Duty Free Group prepares to open the magnificent Haikou International Duty Free City in 2022.
“The Moodie Davitt Report is the world’s leading travel retail publisher and the Virtual Travel Retail Expo, launched in 2020, the industry’s leading all-digital event. This is truly a powerful alliance then between the two companies for this year’s Virtual Travel Retail Expo.”
Martin Moodie said: “The Moodie Davitt Report is very honoured that China Duty Free Group has become the exclusive Strategic Cooperation Partner of the second Virtual Travel Retail Expo this October.
“China Duty Free Group’s exclusive Strategic Cooperation Partnership with the Virtual Travel Retail Expo is a tremendous boost for the event and will attract brands from all over the world to visit the ambitious CDFG City that the company is creating especially for the event.
“I have known Mr Charles Chen, President of China Duty Free Group for many years – indeed we entered the travel retail industry in the same year, 1987!
“His commitment to the industry and over recent years his leadership of China Duty Free Group has been inspirational and I am very, very proud to sign this exclusive agreement today.”
Charles Chen said: “We are delighted to join the Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021 as the exclusive Strategic Cooperation Partner. On behalf of China Duty Free Group, I invite all friends and partners from the global travel retail industry to take part in the Expo, discuss overcoming the crisis, inspiring innovation and mutually supporting the sustainability of the industry. Friends and partners are welcomed to come to visit our booth, ‘CDFG CITY’, and we will present you an extraordinary view of CDFG.”
The ceremony concluded with the formal signing of the agreement.
The all-digital Virtual Expo, owned by The Moodie Davitt Report (with support from FILTR.QINGWA and 2021 co-organiser Hainan Provincial Bureau of Intentional Economic Development), is the follow-up to the successful Virtual Travel Retail Expo in October 2020, where CDFG was a Diamond Partner.
Source: ©The Moodie Davitt Report