Lucrative Deal Allows Company To Operate 20 Duty-Paid Shops At Shanghai's Bustling Hongqiao International Airport#
A short but newsworthy item today about travel retailer Dufry Group signing a lucrative, seven-year concession agreement with Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to open and operate 20 duty-paid shops in the airport's West terminal, which is set to open in March 2010 in time for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. As DFNI notes, this deal will allow Dufry and the foreign luxury brands it carries to tap in to the nearly 23 million passengers Hongqiao Airport serves every year:
[Dufry] said it has already started planning a “state-of-the-art shopping arena” featuring international luxury brands such as Hugo Boss, Burberry, Dunhill, Ermenegildo Zegna, Lacoste, Coach, Hermès, Giorgio Armani, Cartier and Omega.
Dufry Group CEO Julian Diaz said: “We are extremely pleased with the award of this concession at Shanghai Hongqiao airport and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved in the project for this great achievement. This venture means another significant step forward in direction of becoming the leading travel-retail operator in the Chinese market. We will spare neither time nor efforts to create for passengers an entertaining environment and unique shopping experience.”
As domestic travel continues its upward climb in China (along with outbound travel), and more airports are built or refurbished in China's interior, duty-paid agreements like the one signed this week will probably become even more popular among travel retailers. Since most of these interior regions are underserved by major foreign luxury retailers, these small shopping areas could give a boost both for airport tax revenues as well as luxury retailers, since relatively wealthy individuals in interior regions will likely be more willing to splash out on luxury goods while waiting for a plane than their top-tier counterparts.