Cannes_2026_TUESDAY_ISSUE_DIGITAL

The opening session of yesterday’s TFWA World Conference welcomed economist and bestselling author David McWilliams for an exploration of the geopolitical and economic realities reshaping international business. The creative mind will be critical to navigating a more fragmented global economy A s globalisation enters a new and more fragmented phase, David McWilliams, Economist, author and podcaster, shared a characteristically energetic and entertaining address in yesterday’s TFWA World Conference, examining the impact of shifting trade dynamics, political instability and economic nationalism on industries built around openness and mobility. For travel retail, these changes are more than background noise – they are forces actively reshaping the ecosystem in which the industry operates. McWilliams began not with economics, but with the story of Irish writer James Joyce and his connection to the cosmopolitan city of Trieste. In 1909, Joyce travelled from Ireland to the then Austro- Hungarian port city, which had become a major centre of European trade following the opening of the Suez Canal. For McWilliams, the story illustrates a much bigger point: when technology, trade and geography change, entirely new centres of economic and cultural activity can emerge. Trieste became a melting pot of languages, cultures and ideas – an environment in which creativity could flourish. Joyce himself was fascinated by the possibilities he encountered there, eventually returning to Dublin and opening Ireland’s first cinema. For McWilliams, the fact that Joyce was both a pioneering artist and an entrepreneur is significant. “The creative artistic mind and the creative business mind are one and the same thing,” he argued. Innovation comes from the same instinct that drives artists, entrepreneurs and other people willing to challenge established ways of doing things. “Artists and entrepreneurs are the same type of creatures,” McWilliams said. “They are the people that make the economy dance.” Both are willing to take risks, create something that did not previously exist and operate in what he described as a “theatre of jeopardy”. Crucially, he argued, they also share an inherent optimism – the optimism required to pursue an idea even when the evidence suggests that it may not work. David McWilliams, Economist, author and podcaster: “The creative artistic mind and the creative business mind are one and the same thing.” Tuesday 29 September 2026 10 T F W A D A I L Y