Retail Therapy: WTM Seminar Explores The Taxing Issue Of Duty Free

Retail Therapy: WTM Seminar Explores The Taxing Issue Of Duty Free

World Travel Market 2014 – the leading global event for the travel industry – is putting shopping in the spotlight in a seminar session exploring the importance of the duty free and travel retail market.

The session, Duty Free and Travel Retail: Serving Travel, Serving the Traveller, takes place on Wednesday November 5 from 11.00-12.00.

Hosted by Tax Free World Association, the debate will look in detail at the duty free and travel retail industry, which is now worth over $60 billion in worldwide sales.

The sector is helping airports in particular fund vital enhancements to infrastructure and capacity, and remains for many travellers an integral part of the travel experience. Yet duty free and travel retail is an industry under constant pressure.

From the abolition of intra-EU duty free in 1999 through to the recent application of the so-called ‘one-bag rule’, the market is subject to sudden, imposed change that affects its ability to support the wider travel industry.

The session will also look at the issues it currently faces and why they matter to other companies in the travel chain. And it will suggest ways in which duty free retailers might profitably co-operate with companies in other sectors in order to improve the traveller’s experience and, ultimately, drive revenue for all.

Hosting the session will be Tax Free World Association conference, research and corporate affairs director, John Rimmer.

Representing 480 brand-owning companies active in the duty free and travel retail market, Tax Free World Association is the largest trade organisation in the industry.

Rimmer will be joined by Frank O’Connell, former director of retail at Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), who now handles European retail affairs for the DAA on a consultancy basis.

Completing the panel will be Sarah Branquinho, president of the European Travel Retail Council and business relations and external affairs director of World Duty Free Group, the UK’s leading travel retailer, which features 18,000 products across its UK airport and Eurotunnel stores.

World Travel Market, Senior Director, Simon Press said: “This session will explore the current value of the duty free and travel retail market and the ways in which it contributes to the travel industry, such as helping to enhance infrastructure, as well as being an important part of the experience for travellers.

“With the panel’s expert input, this promises to be a fascinating session that will deepen delegates’ understanding of duty free and travel retail sector, what it brings to the travel industry as a whole and how it can adapt to constant changes in rules and regulations.”

The session takes place in South Gallery room 15&16.

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About World Travel Market

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

More than 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

03WTM, now in its 35th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM 2013 generated more than £2 billion of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.

WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a other portfolio’s of travel industry events including IBTM Events, the world’s leading showcases for the meetings and events industry and International Luxury Travel Market events.

In 2013, RE held more than 500 events in 40 countries bringing together more than six million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.

Reed Exhibitions

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry, with a wide-ranging portfolio of 21 international events in 14 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Its market-leading, business-to-business events cover all elements of travel and tourism, including leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, events, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.

RTE is part of Reed Exhibitions.

www.reedtravelexhibitions.com