20% Growth for 2008 TFWA Asia Pacific Duty Free and Travel Retail Exhibition

Major airport executives are signing up early for the TFWA Asia Pacific and Gate ONE2ONE conference and exhibition event in Suntec Singapore from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May in order to catch the latest on airport retail trends, customer relationship management, consumer purchasing behaviour and the most exciting products from over 200 top international brand owners.

The TFWA Asia Pacific duty free and travel retail exhibition on 13th, 14th and 15th May is a unique chance for aspiring suppliers to display their wares before some of the most influential buyers in the travel retail scene.

At over 6,200 m² the exhibition floor will be 20% larger than last year and the largest since TFWA Asia Pacific was launched over a decade ago. To date 214 companies have confirmed they will be exhibiting at the event, up 7% on last year, of which a quarter are new to the show.

The newcomers include Sony electronics; Nici and Troika toys; Cadbury, Fauchon, Hershey's and Nestle confectionery & fine food; Dunhill, Hello Kitty, Nadia Minkoff and Victorinox Swiss Army fashion & accessories; ITF, Loft Sam, Lulu Castagnette and Selectiva fragrances & cosmetics; Riedel and Global Lifestyle tableware; Lambretta and Timex Group watches; Philip Morris and Silver Base International tobacco; Campari and Diageo wines & spirits.

These new companies will stand alongside an impressive selection of companies which exhibited last year at the Singapore event and improved their business prospects in the whole region as a result.

The exhibition will be preceded by the one-day TFWA Asia Pacific and Gate ONE2ONE Conference on 12th May at which airports and airport commercial revenues will be the principal focus.

The importance of knowing the market and establishing a relationship with the customer will be recurring themes of the plenary session and subsequent workshops. Other major influences such as airport design, low-cost carriers, cross-culture branding and budgeting will all feature in a programme which encourages participation and energetic debate.

Among the highlights, the 'Assessing customer needs in the airport environment' session will draw on pioneering research into consumer preferences by food travel experts SSP and US research company Envirosell whose analysts studied thousands of hours of film of passengers as they made their way through the airport terminal.

Few people are better suited to talking about customer relationship management techniques than the founder of the 1to1 CRM concept, Don Peppers, Founding Partner of Peppers & Rogers, who will talk to airports and commercial partners about how knowledge of the airport customer base can positively impact revenues.

Incheon Airport, Singapore Changi, Beijing Airport and Macquarie Airports will each contribute their invaluable insight to the session on 'Airport revenue strategies… balancing aeronautical and commercial revenues'. 

London Heathrow T5, opened just weeks before the event, and the new Singapore Changi T3 both feature avant-garde design and innovative retail architecture and will be case studies for the session on 'The role of architects in planning commercial space' which will include contributions from architects, airport planners and commercial managers.

Senior executives from many of the most important airport hubs in Asia Pacific have already register for the TFWA Asia Pacific and Gate ONE2ONE event including:

• Australasia - Cairns Port Authority, Melbourne Airport, Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd Macquarie Airports and Auckland Int'l Airport Ltd. 
• China - Beijing Capital Int'l Airport Co. Ltd, Chengdu Shuangliu Int'l Airport Passenger Service Co., Kunming Airport Management Development Co., Shanghai Int'l Airport Co. Ltd 
• India:- Cochin International Airport Limited 
• Japan - JATCO
• Korea - Incheon International Airport Corporation
• Singapore - CAAS
• Thailand - Suvarnabhumi International Airport 

In addition, registrations are expected from other airports around the world; ferry, cruise and border store executives; retail operators, duty free and travel retail agents and distributors; and representatives from airport service suppliers. 

This year, for the first time, TFWA will orchestrate a ONE2ONE networking forum which is designed to bring these key stakeholders - airports, airport commercial partners and exhibiting brands - together in pre-organised private business meetings. The meetings will take place in a special ONE2ONE Lounge suite on the exhibition floor which has been designed to ensure total confidentiality and privacy for the participants.

Pre-registration for the TFWA Asia Pacific and Gate ONE2ONE event will remain open until April 16.

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