From May 11th to May 15th, 2014, the CDFG delegation of 16 members led by Chairman and General Manager Peng Hui and Deputy General Manager Zhao Feng and Chen Guoqiang attended the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference upon invitation. The annual exhibition & conference, hosted by the TFWA, is a global event in the duty free field and has attracted active participation of worldwide duty free operators, brand suppliers, airport authorities and industrial media since its first session in 1995. This year’s venue, located at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, accommodated 261 exhibitors within its 8,400-square-meter area, representing a YoY increase of 3.6% and including 61 returnees or new participants. The exhibition was attended by 872 representatives, hitting a record high.
On the conference themed with “Shaping the World” on the first day, Mr. Erik Juul-Mortensen, President of TFWA, Miss Jaya Singh, the former prime minister of Australia and other senior personages in the field delivered wonderful speeches. President Erik introduced that in 2013, the global sales from duty free and travel retail reached USD 60 billion, among which USD 22.3 billion was produced in Asia Pacific, an increase of 12% over the previous year. He also said that such exciting data showed that the increase rate in Asia Pacific far exceeded 7.5% for the whole world and could not be surpassed by other regions. The airport travel retail sales in Asia Pacific accounted for 54% of the world’s total. Among the world top ten airports with highest travel retail sales, there were six Asian airports led by Incheon International Airport. Besides, in this region, the perfume and cosmetics had huge output value, whose sales in 2013 reached USD 6.6 billion, representing an increase of 14% and accounting for 30% of all such sales in the world, and fashion clothes and accessories reached USD 4.2 billion, indicating an increase by 15%.
China and Chinese tourists have forcefully pushed such increase, and some emerging and potential countries including Vietnam and Cambodia have been gradually playing an increasingly significant role in the rise. The increasingly expanding travel retail market has also brought more opportunities for the industry. Associations and organizations from different countries should intensify their cooperation, to explore how development in Asia Pacific can lay a keynote for future development of the world, jointly carry out new policies and political tendency favorable for the industrial development and shape new plans for the industry.
At the East Asia symposium, Deputy General Manager Zhao Feng delivered the speech “China Power in Luxury Consumption” on behalf of CDFG, which ignited the enthusiasm of all those present. “China Power” thus immediately became a hot topic of the conference. During her speech, Ms. Zhao analyzed China’s luxury and travel retail trend and Chinese consumers’ luxury purchase behaviors, explained CDFG’s future development plans and answered questions concerning such plans. Moody commented in its headline column CDFG’s speech “powerful and impressive.”
During the conference, Chairman Peng Hui together with Deputy General Manager Zhao Feng and Chen Guoqiang met in succession with many important suppliers including Pernod Richard, Rémy Martin, Shanghai Tobacco, Diageo, Bacardi, Camus, British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Yitong, Japan Tobacco, Nanyang Brothers Tobacco, Estee Lauder, Bvlgari, Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Armani and L’oreal Luxe, and also held talks with the top management of Incheon International Airport and Heinemann. Through such meetings and talks, they exchanged opinions and reached consensus with senior personnel of various brands and operators on future business expansion and strategic cooperation.
At the conference, business departments had extensive contacts and talks with tobacco & drinks, perfumes & cosmetics and food suppliers respectively. They had profound communication and exchanges on such issues as new product launch planning, brand development strategy, joint market promotion, business training, overseas business expansion and e-commerce development. For opening of Haitang Bay Duty Free Shopping Center, the Perfumes & Cosmetics Department further implemented in detail project progress, goods supply guarantee and opening marketing to ensure smooth opening of the Haitang Bay project.
Besides, CDFG also took this opportunity to vigorously publicize itself and its Haitang Bay and e-commerce projects via the industrial media. CDFG also established communication and cooperation mechanism with top management of the two guilds of TFWA and APTRA and reached an initial consensus with them on their future cooperation and development in Asia Pacific.
During the five-day conference, CDFG successfully accomplished its missions at the conference, including brand publicity, key business promotion and business communication. CDFG attracted high attention from representatives in the industry at TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference, effectively helping China’s duty free industry gain more popularity in the international duty free circle and also creating a sound environment and laying a solid foundation for expansion and promotion of CDFG’s future large projects.