The Trinity Forum: Travel Food Services
Elevating the airport lounge experience
Airport lounges should carry appeal that goes beyond the ordinary. That was the key message of a special presentation by Travel Food Services (TFS) Executive Director Varun Kapur at Trinity 2023.
Kapur highlighted that TFS lounges are integrating regional art and architectural influences into the space; use materials that are locally sourced; create installations that tell a story of the city being visited; and build memories by allowing customers to savour the well-known parts of the airport city’s culture or food.
TFS currently operates over 350 food & beverage outlets across 19 cities in airports, railway stations and highway service areas. It also manages 27 international airport lounges.
Varun Kapur: Meeting recalibrated consumer expectations with fresh ideas
“We believe in bringing together the history, culture and craftsmanship that is resonant to the city into luxury spaces to create multi-sensory experiences”
TFS Executive Director Varun Kapur
Assessing the airport lounge marketplace, Kapur said: “The global discerning passenger is tired of the old way of lounges, where design and experiences are unimaginative and cookie-cutter; there is no effort in achieving a Sense of Place.
“Food is an afterthought and customer experience is both substandard and monotonous at the same time. We believe in pushing the envelope and doing things differently, bringing together the history, culture and craftsmanship that is resonant to the city into luxury spaces to create multi-sensory experiences.”
Kapur concluded his presentation with a stunning video introducing the new TFS brand, Araya, a new luxury airport lounge player. Details will soon follow via The Moodie Davitt Report.
The quality of the TFS offer was recently underlined as the company was co-winner of the Airport Lounge F&B Offering of the Year at The Moodie Davitt Report’s Airport Food & Beverage + Hospitality awards in Thailand. It also captured the award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year (see below).
Travel Food Services Chief Operating Officer (centre) and Vice President Business Development Darpan Mehta accept the Airport Lounge F&B Offering award from Dermot Davitt at the FAB Awards in Bangkok in September
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The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 329 | 22 November 2023
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