The Trinity Forum – Looking forward
Future-proofing the travel retail opportunity
A bright, future-focused session featured Newmark Executive Managing Director Simon Black; Suntory Global Spirits Revenue Growth Director Global Travel Retail Ashish Sagar and MATARAT Holding General Manager Commercial (Non-Aero) Marcus Spahn. They discussed how the channel can evolve to maintain relevance in a changing world.
Spahn shared the key pillars of MATARAT’s Vision 2030 goal and the strategic ‘building blocks’ required to achieve that goal. He said: “What differentiates us from other markets is that we are operating as an ecosystem.
Looking into the future: Dermot Davitt in discussion with (from second left) Suntory Global Spirits Revenue Growth Director Global Travel Retail Ashish Sagar; Newmark Executive Managing Director Simon Black; and MATARAT Holding General Manager Commercial Marcus Spahn
“We are looking at the wider infrastructure and socio-economic development of the entire Kingdom. By 2030, our ambition is to have an operational passenger capacity of 330 million. In terms of traffic development we want to cater to 250 international destinations. In terms of commercial, we’re aiming for 45% of non-aeronautical revenues, which is ambitious. Finally, we want to have four of our airports in the top 100 of Skytrax rankings.”
MATARAT’s future-proofing strategy will be based around principles of customer-centricity, experience, sense of place, digitalisation, personalisation, partnerships and sustainability.
Black urged delegates to place people at the heart of their commercial strategies. He said: “The aviation industry is responsible for 87 million jobs and indirectly responsible for 300 million jobs worldwide. We must focus on our passengers, partners, consumers, guests and employees to future-proof our amazing industry.
“We’re fortunate enough to live in an era with amazing technological advancement but that should not come at the cost of focusing on people. Physical retail is not dead. It will continue to have big relevance in the future.”
Sagar underlined travel retail’s role as a brand-building, profit-generation and talent-development channel and shared how brands can best capitalise the travel retail opportunity.
He said: “Brands need to adapt to changes in consumer behaviour, deliver value across key stakeholders and simultaneously navigate the external landscape.
“To adapt to changing consumer behaviours, brands need to keep up with the evolution of the consumer, then adapt their product offerings and shopping experiences accordingly. Brands need to be agile to navigate the external landscape which means embracing technology and being flexible amid global marketing changes and regulatory evolutions.”
Partner’s message
The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 341 | 4 December 2024
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (MA Travel Retail). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please e-mail kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com