From the Publisher

This is our last eZine of the decade, comprising a look back on the key events, images, videos and industry developments of the year. But it also looks forward, nowhere more insightfully than in Philip Morris International SVP Global Communications Marian Salzman’s acutely insightful ‘20 consumer, political and lifestyle trends for 2020’ (page 19).

Marian has an impressive track record at this sort of thing. It was she who predicted the rise of ‘metrosexuality’ and declared that “sleep is the new sex” (sounds worrying for a website that never sleeps) and I am particularly drawn to her observation that the craving for person-to-person interaction has never been higher. With digitally connected lives (through WeChat, Skype, WhatsApp), we no longer experience human contact like we used to, Marian notes. “And we miss it.”

Think about the following extract from her article. “More and more, each of us lives within our own individualised, personally curated bubble, listening to playlists streamed exclusively to our ears, hunched over entertainment on our tiny devices, connecting with colleagues via text rather than in person. Workday lunches have been replaced by group chats on Microsoft Teams. And we are feeling the impact. At our core, humans are social animals. We need contact—and not just emotional, but physical.”

*Number of times the term was used in a story on The Moodie Davitt Report.com that year;

** Drawn from the Chinese word ‘Wanghong’ [ 貢븐 ], the term came into popular usage around September 2009

Which leads me to how I see travel retail and airport commerce developing in the 20s. Yes, the age of digitisation will accelerate, both in commerce and communication terms. Yes, artificial intelligence will grow in importance (look out for a major exclusive story from The Moodie Davitt Report in early January that examines the unprecedented use of AI to create a breakthrough product). And yes, mobile platforms will continue to dominate (to the point of obsession) the lives of emerging generations just as they have gripped the older ones – as the radio did in the 1920s.

Human meets humanoid: Martin Moodie gets up close and personal with a digital friend at Daxing International Airport

But personalisation, customisation, humanisation and differentiation – multiple expressions of a similar human need to express individualism – will find increasing voice. Human service will grow, not diminish, in importance; the key senses of touch, taste, smell and feel will become more important than ever before in an age where a tap of the keyboard or a swipe of a device delivers a price comparison or a purchase but no personal interaction.

Other well-documented consumer trends of the recent 2010s will also gather strength. Provenance, environmental and wider CSR credentials, authenticity and heritage are not new consumer values but they are now integral ones.

I believe the future of travel retail – and of airport commercial activities such as food & beverage – depends more on the embracing of these key consumer trends than it does on any geopolitical, macro or intra-industry issue (e.g. onerous concession fees) or even traffic growth.

As I have stated so often in recent years, airports (and downtown duty free shops) are a unique crossroads of humanity; crossroads which attract an ever-changing melting pot of consumers across nationalities, age, cultures and creeds. Anticipating, understanding and serving their needs and desires (the two are often different) is pivotal to our industry’s fortunes. Let airlines do the dumbing down of food for travellers, not airports; let the high street be the expression of innovation inertia, not the travel retail channel.

But as one of travel retail’s first digital disruptors (we launched in 2002 as an initially pure digital play in a market dominated by legacy model print titles), I do not underrate the critical and growing importance that digital communication and commerce will play in how our channel shapes in the future.