The APTRA Exchange on 8 May 2023, attracted over 700 delegates, and we are delighted with the feedback received for the presentation given by Simon Baptist, Global Chief Economist of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Simon has a great skill in presenting macro-economics and the geopolitical landscape with tremendous energy and passion, making for a most interesting and engaging after-lunch slot, guaranteed to keep everyone awake. His presentation is accessible via the hyperlink in his name above. You can also access the traffic research presented by Marina Giuliano – pdf  of ForwardKeys.

During the session, we also revealed plans to launch the APTRA Index, as summarised by Stephen Hillam of Pi Insight.  Intended to monitor movements in category sales across the industry, the Index will map data contributed by participating retailers against passenger numbers provided by ForwardKeys for the airports covered in the survey. This will be a free service to APTRA members and all data will be fully anonymised and held exclusively by Pi Insight, meaning APTRA’s role will be solely to share the Index without any additional insights given to our team, ensuring complete confidentiality.

To get this off the ground, it is essential to secure the support of as many retailers and airport commercial teams as possible across the region and we welcome support from members, either directly as retailers or airport commercial teams, or from suppliers by encouraging retail customers to participate.