Retail in Asia

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How much is Duty-free industry worth?

The Shilla Duty Free unveils “seamless retail” in Changi T4 beauty outlet

Tax Free World Association (TFWA) President Erik Juul-Mortensen has revealed the much-anticipated figures from Generation Research, which show the duty-free industry’s performance in 2017.

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Revealing the preliminary findings at the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference in Singapore, Juul-Mortensen said the industry was worth $68.6bn last year, an 8.1% increase on 2016.

The regional breakdown showed that Asia Pacific was once again the primary driver of growth. Juul-Mortensen said the Asia Pacific region was proving to be a “powerhouse” of growth ahead of revealing that the region brought in $30.6bn of duty-free sales in 2017, 45% of global sales.

The fastest growing category globally was once again perfumes and cosmetics, which grew 13.8% year-on-year to $24.5bn. This was even more pronounced in the Asia Pacific region where it increased 19.9%.

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The growth was seen in each of the channels (airports, cruise/ferry, airlines and ‘other shops’). Airports led the way, but ‘other shops’ – the category including border stores and downtown duty-free – grew 9.3%, which was the fastest of any category.

(Source: DFN)