A new face for luxury travel retail at Hamad International

The opening of luxury avenue Viale di Lusso at Hamad International Airport (HIA) on 2 August was a powerful show of strength and a signal of faith in the future of travel retail from the Qatar Airways Group. At a time when other travel retailers are retrenching, Qatar Duty Free hosted the biggest launch event of its kind in its history and one of the most spectacular luxury unveilings we have seen at an airport. The timing was fitting too, coming in the same week in which Hamad International was named as the World’s Best Airport at the Skytrax 2021 World Airport Awards. The consumer-voted award marks a breakthrough moment for the Doha hub, and major recognition of its status in the airport world today (see panel below).

As reported, what the group calls “a unique luxury travel experience”, features an enhanced retail and dining portfolio and a number of global and regional firsts.

The new luxury zone houses the first airport boutique in the Middle East for fashion designer Valentino, as well as stores representing designer names Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Jimmy Choo, Chloe, Emporio Armani and Pucci, which build on QDF’s existing collection of high-end brands.

The Emporio Armani Ristorante and Emporio Armani Caffè is a world first for an airport, with a high-quality menu inspired by Italy and many premium design touches. Next door, a Starbucks Reserve coffeehouse offers coffee connoisseurs the chance to discover new creations and rare, single-origin selections of unique roasts.

The Viale di Lusso official opening ceremony was officiated by Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, Hamad International Airport Chief Operating Officer, Engineer Badr Al Meer, and Qatar Duty Free Vice President Operations, Thabet Musleh. The Ambassador of Greece to Qatar, H.E. Mrs Eleni Michalopoulou, Deputy Ambassador of Italy, Filippo Perzolla, and the Italian Embassy First Secretary Ms Carlotta Colli were guests of honour. H.E. Akbar Al Baker said: “At Qatar Airways Group, we know that the excitement and anticipation of international air travel begins the second travellers step through the doors of the airport and into an exciting, memorable, and fulfilling journey. This collaboration between QDF and HIA proves our continuous efforts to offer an unrivalled retail and dining experience for our passengers.”

Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer said: “Hamad International Airport is proud to launch Viale Di Lusso, a unique luxury avenue at the heart of the award-winning airport terminal, offering a suite of global brands joining its existing retail portfolio. As a diverse lifestyle destination of its own, HIA continues to curate memorable luxury and exclusive retail experiences for travellers, designed around their discerning tastes, convenience and wellbeing.” Thabet Musleh said: “Viale Di Lusso represents another step in the delivery of QDF’s mission to transform the retail and dining offer at HIA to ensure that we continue to raise the bar in travel retail globally, providing our passengers with a differentiated, memorable, and unique experience. It is an exciting period for us as we continue to grow and expand looking forward to further enhancing our retail and dining portfolio in the next few months.”

Discussing this project and the wider expansion plans later with The Moodie Davitt Report, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer said: “It’s a very big achievement to be able to convince this number of great brands to come and open at an airport here at what has been a difficult time, and as the industry is still recovering. “In the beginning they were a bit reluctant but when we showed them our numbers, our expansion plans, they were convinced about what we and they could achieve. You can see by the attendance of the brands today that they are paying a lot of attention to Hamad International and the business potential here. And they can see that once they open at the airport, we develop a strong partnership and help each other to grow through mutual support.” Thabet Musleh added: “It has been amazing how so many partners have supported us so strongly. We are very humbled and it shows the trust that they have in Qatar Duty Free.

“One of our USPs, which we have brought to this project, is simply that we do everything in-house as a group, and that is very important. We focus on customer service as a group and whether it’s the airport, airline or duty free, we offer that five-star service to the customer.” On the wider ambitions for HIA, the major planned expansion of the terminal is going “according to plan,” Engr Badr Al Meer added. “We have many brands interested and even a waiting list. We are sending a message to all the brands, those that are here and those that are not. We will help them market their brands. We can help them and we will talk about them and promote them. “And we aim to satisfy passengers with all tastes, whether they want to shop in the high-end stores or elsewhere.” Engr Badr Al Meer said that passenger traffic had been returning, but that even this growth has been outstripped by soaring levels of business, from which brand partners are benefiting.

“Although our traffic is still much lower compared to 2019, our sales are at around 90% of pre-crisis levels already. So it shows us that passengers are coming back, and are willing to spend in duty free. “During the last four to six weeks we have seen dramatic increases in passengers partly due to vacation season. We hope it continues through the year. On 1 August we recorded 70,000 passengers for the first time since COVID. Until this point we had been close to 60,000 a day. I’m not sure it will continue at that rate of growth but if we hit 45-50% and more of 2019 numbers, things will then take off fully as travel returns. “As we are not as busy as before, we have taken the time to renovate, so that when the travellers come back they will see a new range of units. We will have many new concepts coming here, some firsts for airports in the world.”

Next on the agenda, and a project well under way is the North Node expansion, with an ambitious commercial offer led by a walk-through duty free store to be completed by January 2022. This will lead into a full expansion to be complete by September or October 2022, featuring a stunning 5,000sq m garden surrounded by retail and dining, as first previewed by the group at The Trinity Forum in 2019. More on this to follow soon. Al Badr said: “After this latest expansion is completed we will launch another tender straight away in November-December this year for the expansion of Concourse D and E terminals and their contact gates. “Work on this project will start in January 2023, immediately after the World Cup. We will award a contract around the middle of next year. We are also preparing our plans to go for design on a remote terminal on the western side of the airport, with full contact gates. This will go for design tender hopefully this year, with work beginning after D & E expansion are complete. So there is a lot happening, and much to look forward to.” *See next page for the latest big store concept and brand openings at Hamad International.