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“We have the strength of a collective voice” Collaboration was the second major theme of Branquinho’s address, with the TFWA President arguing that the industry can achieve significantly more when it speaks collectively. “When we come together, our industry can achieve extraordinary things,” she said. Branquinho highlighted the industry’s response to allegations from the World Health Organization (WHO) linking duty free sales to the illicit tobacco trade. Retailers, brands and regional associations, led by the Duty Free World Council (DFWC), acted together to challenge the allegations, with the WHO ultimately dropping its investigation. But Branquinho called for that same collective approach to protecting the distinctiveness of travel retail. “We’re all chasing growth, but we also need to be clear about what makes our channel distinctive,” she said. Practices such as extending B2B selling and providing online access to non-travellers, she argued, risk blurring the boundaries between travel retail and local retail. “If we are united in protecting what makes our industry distinctive, we have the strength of a collective voice behind us.” Collaboration is also central to addressing another longstanding challenge: the lack of robust, accessible retailer sell-out data. “We have yet to demonstrate our industry’s real value at top line level,” Branquinho said. “But faced with increasingly demanding government regulation and sharper questions from investors, estimates alone are no longer enough.” TFWA and the DFWC are now working with global retailers to explore extending the ETRC’s Business Performance Index, managed by Pi-Insight, into a high-level global sell-out database. “It would give us, for the first time, a stronger and more consistent picture of our industry’s performance while protecting the commercial sensitivities of individual retail businesses,” Branquinho explained. The Way Forward Branquinho then turned to her third theme: The Way Forward, returning to the central challenge of converting more travellers into shoppers. “There are many explanations for this – changing passenger behaviours, changing space allocation, digital distraction and our own ability to convert,” she said. “The truth is almost certainly a combination of them. What matters now is how we respond.” Her answer was unequivocal: the industry needs to change. “I turn to advice from two of the women in travel retail I admire most,” she said, quoting Avolta’s Freda Cheung: “Nostalgia is not an option!” and Heinemann’s Inken Callsen: “We have to dare to work differently.” “Certainly, we must work differently,” Branquinho continued. “This does not mean discarding what makes travel retail special. It means being much more deliberate about how we translate those strengths for a new generation of travellers.” Younger consumers are exposed constantly to online platforms and direct-to-consumer channels through social media. “Beauty, our own industry’s biggest category, grew online by 18% last year, and almost a quarter of global beauty consumers made a purchase through TikTok,” Branquinho said. “That tells us something important about the speed with which discovery can now become desire, and desire can become purchase.” Travel retail must therefore combine its strengths in price and assortment with discovery, relevance and experience. “We are so much more than a distribution channel,” Branquinho said. “Our ability to put brands in front of an engaged, global audience at a moment when people are travelling, exploring and open to inspiration gives travel retail a unique role as a discovery platform.” That means rethinking how stores are organised and how products are presented. “Travellers do not necessarily organise their shopping that way,” Branquinho said of the industry’s traditional category structure. “They think about moments and missions: celebration, discovery, self-treating, gifting, or a last-minute essential.” The answer could be more cross-category propositions built around these missions, alongside greater local discovery. “Perhaps our airports should offer a little more surprise, a little more discovery, and a little more of the place we have actually travelled to,” Branquinho suggested. Innovation will also be critical. Branquinho highlighted new concepts and live testbeds at the exhibition, as well as Heinemann’s collaboration with Australian beauty retailer Mecca at Sydney Airport. “These are the kinds of experiments we should watch closely, not because every idea will work everywhere, but because we need the confidence to test, learn and scale what does,” she said. “The opportunity is extraordinary” Branquinho ended on a positive assessment of the road ahead. “I am resolutely optimistic about the way forward for travel retail,” she said. “Not because passenger growth alone will carry us there, but because the fundamentals are sound and the opportunity is extraordinary.” Ten billion passengers passing through the world’s airports represents “an extraordinary audience”, she noted. The challenge is to persuade more of those people to engage with travel retail. “Our responsibility is to give them a reason to walk into our stores, a reason to discover something they did not expect, and a reason to buy.” After 42 exhibitions, Branquinho said she had seen the industry adapt many times before and was confident it would do so again. “Our task is not simply to protect the travel retail we inherited,” she concluded. “It is to shape a travel retail proposition that the next generation of travellers will actively choose. That is a challenge worthy of this industry and one I hope we will take on together.” Scan the QR code to share your feedback on yesterday’s TFWA World Conference. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete. TFWA President Sarah Branquinho: “I am resolutely optimistic about the way forward for travel retail. Not because passenger growth alone will carry us there, but because the fundamentals are sound and the opportunity is extraordinary.” Tuesday 29 September 2026 8 T F W A D A I L Y