Strong support for TFWA Asia Pacific Live as full programme of events revealed

Officially hosted by Changi Airport, TFWA Asia Pacific Live will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre from 9^th to 11^th May in Singapore, and will provide an opportunity for the duty free and travel retail industry across the region to network in-person once again. The event is also being supported by the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association and the Singapore Tourism Board.

Dufry, Mondelēz and Bacardi-Martini have been named as platinum sponsors, while Duty Free Global and Brown-Forman will be supporting the TFWA Asia Pacific Lounge, and Lindt will sponsor the coffee break. Les Chocolats de Pauline, Leonidas, iClick Interactive and Imperial Brands will be supporting the One2One meeting service. In addition to this, numerous pre-registered buyers, landlords and retailers have committed to the event, including Dufry, Heinemann Asia Pacific, Lotte Duty Free Oceania and Malaysia Airports.

Alongside TFWA Asia Pacific Live’s networking focus, there will be a number of workshops throughout the event which will enable attendees to learn more about the current trends and/market/etc) in the industry.

Six workshops will take place on Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11 beginning with the Opening Plenary Session featuring addresses from TFWA President Erik Juul-Mortensen and APTRA President Sunil Tuli. Taking place from 9am to 10.30am on Tuesday, May 10, this will feature a talk led by big data and AI expert Dr Ayesha Khanna on how new technologies and modes of consumption are changing the way brands are bought and sold. Later the same day, from 2pm until 3pm, a Focus on India workshop will take place, putting a spotlight on one of Asia’s biggest markets which is expected to play a large part in the recovery of the region. Speakers will include Delhi Duty Free CEO Ashish Chopra and Bangalore International Airport Ltd Assistant VP Commercial Development Pravat Kumar Paikray.

The third and final workshop of the day will be the APTRA Exchange, a knowledge-sharing session in which APTRA members and their business partners will be updated on the current status of the duty free and travel retail industry in Asia Pacific, focusing on travel trends and regulatory issues. The session will be taking place from 4pm to 6pm and speakers will be announced shortly.

A State of the travel market in Asia Pacific workshop will take place on Wednesday, May 11 from 9am to 10.30am. Leading the discussion will be Pedro Castro, COO of Dufry Group Asia Pacific, Sarah Matthews, Group Head of Destination Marketing APEC at Tripadvisor, Ilia Lioutov, Senior Expert at Airport Economics and ESG ACI Asia-Pacific and Jason Cao, Founder of Duty Free Expert and General Manager of Amberich International HK Ltd. The workshop will explore retail, tourism and air traffic trends in Asia Pacific, along with emerging destinations and traveller preferences.

A discussion on Sustainable Futures will take place later that day from 2pm to 3.30pm. Held in partnership with trade publication TR Business, it will draw on a recent major consumer study by travel research consultancy, m1nd-set and explore what sustainability truly means for shoppers across the region, hearing from brands and retailers on how they are adapting their own business models to meet the expectations of consumers and business partners.

Rounding off the learning experience, a Digital Transformation in Southeast Asia workshop will take place on Wednesday, May 11 from 4.30pm until 5.30pm. The session will be headed by Dhruv Vohra, Regional Director at Meta Southeast Asia and Praneeth Yendamuri, partner at Bain & Company, drawing on their combined report ‘Southeast Asia, the home for digital transformation’. The authors of the report will share their insights on how the migration from offline to online will shape consumers’ way of life in post-pandemic Asia and how brands and consumers will interact in the future.

In between workshops, delegates are encouraged to conduct face-to-face formal conversations by using the TFWA ONE2ONE meeting facilities. In order to do so, attendees can register for the event, complete a form during registration process to confirm their interest in the ONE2ONE meeting service and get targeted ONE2ONE Business Meetings prior to the event. Delegates can then confirm when they are available for meetings and select the workshop sessions they would like to take part in to avoid overlap. Delegates will have access to their Business Meetings Agenda by the end of April, and the TFWA team will ensure meetings run smoothly on-site. Additionally, dedicated areas will be reserved for brands to have face-to-face meetings.