FRESH RESEARCH LAUNCHED BY APTRA – TOMORROW’S DUTY FREE CUSTOMERS IN ASIA PACIFIC

The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) is set to release exclusively to its members, a new study entitled ‘Tomorrow’s Duty-Free Customers: Emerging Asia Pacific Source Markets’, which focuses on non-Chinese Asia Pacific markets that are emerging for travel retail.

While it is acknowledged that mainland China is the key driver of growth in travel retail sales, accounting for 12% of international passenger traffic and 44% of airport travel retail spending, other travellers from Asia Pacific, particularly from Japan and India, are also significant contributors, accounting in total for 23% of travellers and 21% of spend.

The new report, which is available free to members through the APTRA website, draws on data from Horizon’s Travel Retail Catalyst Study (TRaCS) to analyse emerging source markets. China, India and Japan do not qualify as ‘emerging’ as they are not markets in which both spend per capita and volume of travellers are increasing simultaneously. The APTRA study, therefore, focuses on travellers from South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan.

The distinctive characteristics of travellers from each of these markets have been studied in detail by Horizon, including customer demographics, shopping priorities while travelling, purchase motivations, product category penetration, favourite brands, the appeal of travel exclusives, and the popularity of independent vs group travel.

Grant Fleming, President APTRA, commented: “This report gives the industry an excellent regional perspective on what is coming down the line. APTRA continues to commission meaningful research into topics which will be of practical help to our members, stimulating debate which helps them to formulate their future commercial retail strategies and, importantly, to strengthen, nurture and protect our industry.

“Much has been said about the strength of the Chinese traveller market but the characteristics of emerging shoppers in other travel retail markets are less well understood. This new report provides robust data about five important markets which represent an exciting potential revenue stream for our industry. It offers a wealth of data and analysis which are available to APTRA members.”

This report is available exclusively to APTRA members through the ‘Members Only’ section of the website www.aptra.asia. If you are not already a member, join now and access this and all other reports.

The top-line results from this research will be presented by Michael Feely, COO of Horizon Consumer Science, at APTRA’s next Insights Seminar which takes place on 21st November in Singapore, at the KPMG Offices Clubhouse. All APTRA members are invited to attend. Contact [email protected] for registration details.

End

About APTRA

The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) is a membership organisation whose vision is to represent all members of the association and to strengthen, nurture & protect the duty free and travel retail industry in the Asia Pacific region. APTRA’s membership comprises airports, retailers and brands, which is unique and adds richness to the association’s work. APTRA’s territory spans over 42 countries in Asia Pacific.

APTRA strengthens the knowledge base of the industry by supporting members through meaningful research, knowledge share, networking opportunities and advocating the industry when facing regulatory challenges. Commissioning relevant market research is one of the quality outputs of APTRA, the results of which are disseminated exclusively to members through private seminars, networking workshops and the Association website.

APTRA is on the alert constantly for legislative and regulatory challenges which may impact the duty free and travel retail industry. Working with members, fellow trade associations and related agencies, APTRA engages with governments and policy-makers to facilitate a deeper understanding of the industry’s pivotal role in local communities, employment, travel infrastructure and the economies of the region.

www.aptra.asia

About Horizon Consumer Science Horizon Consumer Science has been helping brands, retailers and airports to better understand travelling consumers and to grow their businesses for more than 20 years. With offices in North America and Australia, Horizon carried out research projects in over 20 different countries in 2018. In a world where relationships with clients are “project-toproject” Horizon has forged some very long lasting relationships. The true test of whether or not the decisions we help our clients make are “right” is in these relationships. http://horizonconsumerscience.com