Sponsored by Leader
Can we bank on LATAM’s long-term resurgence?
Familiar surroundings will greet industry
stakeholders attending this month’s inaugural Duty Free and Travel Retail Summit of the Americas, but an all-together more different proposition lies in wait. In a scenario followed closely by TRBusiness
over the past 12 months, joint organisers IAADFS and ASUTIL will crown a new event in response to popular demand for the need to
change (comments of which have been relayed to TRBusiness). IAADFS and ASUTIL have been working tirelessly to pull together an enhanced conference programme while delivering on the usual mandate of organising a productive exhibition. The likes of Dufry Group, Motta Internacional, Aer Rianta
International, DFS, DFA, DFASS and other key retail players are expected to arrive in Florida with buyer delegations. In turn, the event is set to be bolstered by the return of a number of important suppliers. As is now known, ASUTIL and IAADFS will continue to run the event in Orlando through 2019 and 2020 at another venue yet to be disclosed at the time this issue went to press. IAADFS President and CEO Michael Payne says the collaboration
with ASUTIl has been relatively seamless with regards to the curation of the new conference programme, which is good news. While return on investment remains the prime motivation for exhibitors and buyers alike, the relative ‘sticking power’ of shows such as these rest on the provision of informative, memorable content delivered by high-calibre speakers. The expected appearance of Dufry Group CEO Julián Díaz will therefore certainly add to a lustre IAADFS and ASUTIL will be keen to maintain moving forward.
Sales +30% in 2017 Away from the show itself, Latin America’s more buoyant fiscal and macroeconomic path is producing a dynamic calling card for airport and retail operators to conduct business. José Luis Donagaray, Secretary-General, ASUTIL confirms to
TRBusiness in an exclusive interview [see page 28] that full-year growth in Latin American duty free mirrored the +30% headwinds witnessed in Q1 last year, with growth of approximately +20% predicted for full-year 2018. DFA and Motta will have certainly contributed to that uptick, as they consolidated their respective Panama Tocumen Airport tender wins last year, while Dufry continues to feel the boom from rising international numbers at its Mexico City and Cancun ventures. More generally, IAADFS’ Payne says the revival spells good news for infrastructure investments and new store developments. However, there remain pockets of concern; the residual damage to some operations caused by the impact of the Atlantic storms last year being just one example [turn to page 29 to read the interview in full]. A snapshot from Focus Economics suggests Latin America ended
Q4 with GDP growth of +2.3% – potentially its strongest since Q1 2014. It will be interesting to see whether Brazil’s resurgence and future regional elections will dampen that progress…
Acting Managing Editor MARCH 2018 TRBUSINESS 13 Luke Barras-Hill,
MAHB retail up +15% to $218m in full-year 2017
Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) has revealed continued double-digit retail and commercial revenue growth of +15.4% and +11.3% to RM853.7m ($217.8m) and RM734.6m ($188m), respectively, across its Malaysian operations in 2017. Revenue from non-aeronautical segments across its Malaysian
business grew by 13.4%. The Group’s Malaysian operations posted total revenue of
RM3.4bn ($867.5m) in FY2017, up +10.6% over FY2016. Revenue from aeronautical and non-aeronautical segments grew by 8% and 13.4%, respectively. Passenger traffic rose by 8.5% to 96.5m passengers, surpassing
the 90m mark for the first time. Group revenue across the board stood at RM4.6bn ($1.2bn),
representing growth of +11.5% year-on-year. EBITDA for the Group rose by 11.8% to RM1.9bn ($484.8m). Passenger traffic for the Group’s network of airports increased by
7.8% to 127.9m passengers. Other developments included MAHB entering into a strategic-tie
up with the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (Tourism Malaysia), as the country prepares for the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign. MAHB signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
Tourism Malaysia last November to promote inbound traffic globally, focusing on Indian, Chinese and European tourists. MAHB Managing Director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said: “This
unique initiative will yield greater tourism impact and is a significant milestone for both parties in the development of inbound tourism and in developing our international gateways, especially Kuala Lumpur International Airport.” The company added: “2018 holds the promise of being another
exciting year for the Group as it remains committed to delivering high-quality services to its stakeholders by embedding a customer- centric culture in airport operations. This is in line with the Total Airport Experience initiative under Runway to Success 2020.”
LEADER/NEWS
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 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
