LATAM REPORT: JOSÉ LUIS DONAGARAY
Duty free industry benefits from LatAm stabilisation
The 21st ASUTIL conference promises delegates a ride ‘Back to the Future’ and an emotional homecoming as the association’s Secretary General reminisces on his first ASUTIL conference back in 2001, whilst talking to Charlotte Turner.
W
e understand that ASUTIL has been trying to head back to
Rio for its annual conference – after the first event in 2001 – for many years now, so we imagine this event is going to a special one, especially as it could be the association’s last… I’m very excited about heading back to Rio. Last time we were in Rio was 11 September, 2001. During the conference we saw the live crash of the second plane hitting the Twin Towers in the US. Obviously we had to cancel the conference after that. I remember when people started to receive messages and emails from their companies saying ‘you have to come back’. Despite this, we are very excited to return to Rio. Rio has changed a lot after the
Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup in terms of the economy, travel and tourism. There are new airports, new stores so we are very excited to go back. We have wanted to go back there for the last six or seven years now, but due to high costs it was impossible before.
As is now common knowledge ASUTIL and IAADFS are hosting a combined event in 2018, ‘the Summit of the Americas’. So will this mean the end of the traditional June ASUTIL conference from this point? That’s the plan. We are working with IAADFS and other people for doing this event in 2018, so Rio could be the last ASUTIL conference.
What sort of attendance numbers are you expecting for the Rio conference?
JUNE 2017
Donagaray believes the education sessions at the recent IAADFS Duty Free Show of the Americas were successful in late March.
From ASUTIL last year up to now, things in Brazil have changed a lot so we expect this to be reflected in the attendance numbers for the Rio conference. We hope to see an increase on
attendance versus last year. Last year was a tough year because we saw a lot of economic difficulties, but we still saw pretty healthy figures considering the situation. We want to increase the figures this year; yes that’s the idea. We are aiming for around 340
delegates. Brazil is much more stable, Argentina had an election one year ago and is now more stable so there are a lot of things… The only country that is still facing problems is Venezuela, however the price of commodities has been stable and petrol has stabilised. We are optimistic at this point.
We understand operators at TRBUSINESS 29
Brazilian airports have benefited from stabilisation too… Yes. In the first quarter of 2017 operators at Brazilian airports enjoyed double-digit growth. There is more traffic, more spend, because people are more confident in the economy. This is because of a mix of things;
good stores, good mix of product and currencies that help to stabilise the economic situation.
“Rio has changed a lot after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup in terms of the economy, travel and tourism. There are new airports, new stores so we are very excited to go back to Rio.”
José Luis Donagaray, Secretary General, ASUTIL
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