This follows other similar measures to stimulate domestic spending, including a big increase in airport arrivals duty free licences; and government encouragement for state-owned CNSC to expand its post-arrivals duty free downtown shopping network.

Take these factors alongside the striking of a strategic cooperation between CDFG and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in November, and it’s clear that these developments have huge repercussions for Chinese travel spending at home (and therefore potentially abroad).

Retailers and brands, notably in the beauty and luxury goods business, will be closely watching the impact of China’s new e-commerce law, which comes into effect on 1 January. It was designed in part to curb the booming daigou duty free business from South Korea (in particular), Japan and other Asian countries into China.

The hitherto unregulated daigou trade spurred huge turnover (though not profitability) gains in South Korea last year and this, acting as an unofficial distribution channel for beauty (predominantly) and other brands throughout China. Other markets too, led by Japan and Taiwan, benefited from the unofficial channel.

Neither fact pleased the Chinese authorities, who showed their displeasure during the recent Golden Week holiday through a major crackdown on travellers exceeding their allowances. Well-publicised photographs of daigou traders having their holdalls and suitcases searched at Customs helped spread the message that this is a business that the Chinese authorities will not tolerate much longer.

The sweeping new e-commerce law will force e-commerce practitioners, including daigou traders, to pay taxes on all imported goods.

The law will force individual traders who are importing goods to China to register as a company – not just in China but also in the country from where they are importing the goods. But with the crackdown on the daigou business, who will satisfy the huge and increasing Chinese consumer demand?

The Chinese government believes the answer to that question lies largely in the series of inter-related initiatives to support the country’s booming travel retail industry noted above. The fundamentals underlying Chinese demand for beauty and luxury will remain strong. A much-enhanced duty free offer at home will help satisfy that demand.

For South Korean travel retail, the implications run deep. A full daigou crackdown could mean lost sales worth billions of dollars annually. Yet one counterpoint, Korean travel retailers will hope, is that conventional Chinese tourism (group tours and FITs) continues to normalise. The year ahead will be a momentous one for the world’s largest national duty free market.

This time last year we highlighted the “uncertainty and confusion” that the UK’s planned exit from the EU had created for business, politics and communities. Little did we know that 12 months later, we would no clearer on what ‘Brexit’ will look like.

As we compile this edition, embattled UK Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote of no confidence from her own party and continues to seek support for the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU, against the backdrop of a divided UK Parliament.

Amid the upheaval and chaos there remains the potential industry lifeline of a return to duty free between the UK and EU upon the UK’s departure. But even this appears uncertain with the unresolved nature of the UK’s split from the EU. Several scenarios have presented themselves.

If the UK leaves under May’s deal, a transition period to December 2020 would keep Britain under the EU’s customs rules until a permanent trade deal is put in place. In this case, EU legislation would apply “to and in” the UK, as if it were an EU Member State. This would mean no return of duty free during this 'temporary' period.

If the UK leaves without a deal in March 2019, it would become a “third country” overnight. At a stroke, EU laws would no longer apply in the UK and duty free between the two markets would be re-instated.

If May’s government falls, it is possible that a new government would call for a delay in implementing Brexit, or even revoke Article 50, which was invoked to trigger Brexit in the first place. That would leave the status quo in place for longer or even indefinitely. In the event of a second referendum, or a general election, any return to duty free would be halted until the outcome was clear.

“78% of Millennials prefer to spend more money on experiences than on material things. The new generation is not easily influenced by accessible stores and approachable concepts and offers. They demand genuine experiences and information.”

A quote from a fascinating strategy document produced in October by Schiphol Group shone a light on how the airport company aims to forge deeper connections with travelling consumers. Its findings go to the heart of how airports, retailers and brands need to react not only to travellers but to the needs of the planet.

Right at the top of the agenda is transparency and explaining “the why behind the buy”. That includes how goods are made, where they are sourced and whether the story behind them is authentic or not.

Airports and their partners are reacting. Heathrow and Manchester, for example have shown their commitment to eliminate single-use coffee cups; we have heard pledges from leading F&B players to reduce and later remove plastic straws;, and retailers such as Heinemann are cutting down on plastic bag usage. Brands are now focused heavily on eco-friendly packaging to reduce waste and improve their sustainability credentials. Many leading luxury brand owners are offsetting their global carbon footprints with investment in nature and ecology projects.

For the consumer, these examples and others are the minimum expected, rather than a cause for celebration. For the industry, therefore, this can only be the beginning.

At The Trinity Forum in Shanghai, we asked whether things have moved on since airport retail’s financial model was so intensely dissected at that first Trinity in 2003? In the e-commerce age it is becoming clear that it does need to move on, although how is not quite so easy to answer.

In a recent article contributed to The Moodie Davitt Report, Melbourne Airport Chief of Retail Andrew Gardiner summed up the feelings of many airport executives when he argued: “The airport does not demand or extort the rent from the retailer, hold a gun to their head, threaten to take their firstborn or hold them to ransom, quite the contrary. The duty free operators offer a number which they believe they can afford, and one, you would think, which will bring them EBITDA.”

Yet from the leading travel retailer on the planet, a divergent view. “We need to change the relationships we have today with airports. The concession business should evolve,” said Dufry CEO Julián Díaz. “We have a concession contract structure today that doesn’t allow the right tools to allow us to create value and invest in being different.”

“We hear a lot about partnership, but real partnership is to understand the problems, conditions and consequences, then to adapt the concession portfolio and relationships with brands and drive the business forward. We can create a sustainable business, but the basics are not right because we focus too much on the Minimum Guarantee.”

It appears that the move towards change must come from airports, given the control they have of the tender process and contract structures. We see some embracing the future in new ways – whether that is through digitalisation of their engagement with consumers from journey’s start to end (Heathrow, Changi, Auckland), or new relationships (Frankfurt Airport’s duty free JV with Heinemann or moves towards a master concession model among some smaller airports). Where they are leading, will others follow? Whatever the Trinity debate, no 'one size fits all' solution will happen.