NEWS/ANALYSIS: PHILIPPINES
the entrance, then fashion, liquor, tobacco and confectionery; the high end supermarket will be at the end. “Fashion will be open plan in
display in the beginning because of the limited space, but when we open our second floor we will have fashion boutiques. “When we open level two we will
expand – perfumes, cosmetics and fashion may move upstairs or else we will just expand our collection upstairs, we have not decided yet.” Level one will be designed as a
walkthrough store with the entrance walkway dividing into two pathways to take customers through the front sections of the store before the two walkways rejoin in the middle of the store and continue towards the high-end supermarket at the end of the store. “Our second floor will most likely
be perfume, cosmetics and fashion,” says Belmonte. “The space on level one that will be
vacated will be used for the reception and gift wrapping service. We may also extend the liquor and chocolates displays into there.” Planned to serve returning
Filipino travellers, overseas resident Filipinos and the country’s large overseas Filipino workforce on home visits, the new T3 Fiesta arrival store will complement DFP’s under-construction Luxe Duty Free downtown store that also is scheduled to fully open in June after soft opening in April or May. “Our landside T3 Fiesta store will
cater to overseas Filipino workers and regular local travellers. A small fraction of customers will be foreign tourists as they focus on getting to their hotel on arrival and do not want to return to the airport to shop,” says Belmonte. “Our Luxe store is in Manila
city in front of SM Mall of Asia. It has 3,000sq m of retail space. It’s called Luxe as we will use the name to attract foreign FIT and group tour visitors, cruise passengers and visitors attending conventions. “There is an arrangement with
cruise operators to take their passengers to the SM Mall of Asia and we can attract them. We have placed our store there as SM Mall of Asia is a tourist destination.”
FEBRUARY 2018 An estimated 50% of all cruise
passengers visiting Manila are believed to visit SM Mall of Asia, which is one of the world’s largest shopping malls in terms of outlets. The mall is located five minutes walk from the new Luxe Duty Free store. “We are arranging with tour group
organisers and cruise operators so that Luxe is a destination with Mall of Asia. We are talking with Chinese tour companies,” says Belmonte. “We will adopt Alipay and
WeChatPay for online payments. Currently we have Union Pay but not online.” Luxe’s opening will mark the
beginning of a new era for the Philippines’ duty free industry, which until now has relied largely on overseas resident Filipinos, overseas Filipino workers and outbound Filipino travellers for the major portion of its revenues. Foreign tourist arrivals have been
increasing at a double-digit rate for the past six years and are expected to continue growing in the future as new casino, hotel and entertainment resorts open in Manila targeting overseas clients. “Our T3 Fiesta and Luxe downtown
stores will be complementary as they will serve different customers. Filipinos going to Luxe will be those looking for luxury brands,” explains Belmonte. “Luxe will be where the good
brands are. It’s a high-end downtown duty free store, it’s the first time for this in the Philippines. “We have not been able to do this
“Luxe will be where the good brands are. It’s a high-end downtown duty free store, it’s the first time for this in the Philippines.”
Bernadine ‘Dino’ R. Belmonte, Deputy General Manager, Operations, Duty Free Philippines
before. It needs a large luxurious store to bring the brands in.” DFP plans to target guests staying
at Manila’s new hotel-casino resorts with personalised shopping services. “Most hotels with casinos invite
high rollers. We intend to talk to the hotel owners so we can offer selected items to high rollers. We will develop an online brochure for them,” adds Belmonte.
Foreign visitors surge The Philippines fast-growing tourism industry is driving DFP’s plans to open Luxe and other luxury downtown duty free stores in future. Foreign visitor numbers in 2017 are
expected to exceed the Department of Tourism’s original target of 6.5m visitors when numbers are added and announced for last year. “From January to October 2017
there was an 11.4% increase in foreign visitors,” says Belmonte. “In 2016 there were 5.9m foreign
tourists, so the forecast for 2017 was 6.7m overseas visitors. “The government is saying there will be 12m foreign tourists by 2022.”
The Philippines’ fast-growing tourism industry is driving demand for new store openings. TRBUSINESS 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62
