Strategy meetings are a common feature in any travel retailer?s weekly diary. But do they spend any time thinking about how the travel-retail landscape could really look decades from now? Eluned Jones inspires four travel retailers and picks their brains to visualise the way to capitalise on a market of 1.56 billion travelling consumers by the year 2020.

During the dismal days of apartheid, South Africa?s inbound tourist market?and airport shopping?was virtually non-existent. But a decade later visitors to South Africa will find a sophisticated and distinctive travel-retail offer. Joe Bates talks to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) group executive commercial Rory Mackey.

Cape Town handles less than half as many passengers as Johannesburg airport but South Africa?s second-largest airport still punches above its weight. A new international departures terminal will open by the end of 2002.

US designer GRID2 is emphatic that plausible technology is available today to turn these ideas into reality. Here are just a few insights into how ?experiential retail? will evolve, according to GRID2.

Since Hellenic Duty Free Shops (HDFS) was finally privatised in 1999, sales at Greece?s largest travel retailer have been dramatically recovering from their abolition-induced slump. Joint-venture company GTM Management has been implementing a much-needed store-refurbishment programme and product-assortment overhaul.  However, Hellenic Duty Free ceo Jacques Parsons tells Joe Bates that, from a retail perspective, the layout of the airport leaves a lot to be desired.

A new kind of culture is pervading the hallways of The Nuance Group Australia?s head office in Sydney. It may be winter down under but the surf?s up as far as the senior executives are concerned. The Nuance Group director for Asia/Pacific business development and corporate relations Christian Strang and beach culture managing director John Brooks exclusively reveal details of their new joint-venture partnership to Adele Wolstenhulme.

Las Vegas is world-renowned as the glitzy gaming capital of the world, and the city takes pride of place in the tourism league tables for its international pulling power. However, there is a distinct lack of luxury brands to welcome tourists at McCarran International airport. But not for much longer, according to commercial development director Scott Kichline. Adele Wolstenhulme reports.

Archaic customs regulations that prevent travellers from entering duty-free stores if they are not leaving the country are strangling the growth potential of duty-free. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport commercial development director Scott Kichline believes sales to travellers ?would more than double? if regulations were relaxed.

There is a corner of Heathrow that is forever Cuba thanks to Sergio Morera, World Duty Free specialist tobacco buyer and pioneer of the Cigar House retail concept. Joe Bates went to Heathrow to meet a true aficionado whose mission is simple?to find the right cigar for every taste and pocket.

Dubai Duty Free's cigar sales in the first four months of 2001 rose 20% by volume (and 40% by value) on the same period the previous year.

To sell cigars at the airport successfully you need to get three things right, according to World Duty Free tobacco specialist Sergio Morera.

Last year the World Duty Free organised an inter-terminal competition for shop staff at London Heathrow and Gatwick and plans to do the same this year. For those readers wishing to test their cigar knowledge TRI has reproduced seven of the easier exam questions.

Shrinkage, or stock loss, has traditionally been shrugged off by travel retailers as someone else?s problem?with high security at airports cited as a comfort blanket. But a recent report suggests operators may be more vulnerable than they think. Colin Nicholson reports.

2020 vision: are you prepared?

Weitnauer?s decision to set up a duty-free business in Algeria last month is a risky move. But as Joe Bates discovers, when it comes to emerging markets, the Swiss operator firmly sees itself as a ?godfather? eager to ?baptise? new opportunities ahead of the competition.

Weitnauer?s first duty-free stores in Algeria are located at Oran airport and the company has one eye on expansion at Algiers airport, should the opportunity arise.

?Act now to avoid disaster? are familiar words in the global duty- and tax-free business. ITRC director-general Keith Spinks and director of operations Graham Austin believe there?s a common misunderstanding of how real the threat of abolition is in the travel-retail tobacco trade. Adele Wolstenhulme finds out why.

TRI is proud to unveil the next stage in its popular ?Travelling Consumer? series, with highlights from the first extensive consumer research project ever to be undertaken by a travel-retail magazine. In the first on a three-stage professional study, sponsored in part by Allied Domecq Duty Free, TRI interviews international visitors in Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Nevada, USA.

The challenge: To transport yourself to 2020, and paint a picture of the beauty industry. L?Oréal Luxury Products Division director general of prospective and new projects Dimitri Katsachnias talks to Neena Dhillon.

In the Beauty Forum?s search for a vision of 2020, some inspiring ideas were also provided by respected beauty consultant Edward Clarke.

With one of the highest tax regimes in Europe, it?s no surprise that when Swedes travel, they like to splash out in the shops. GMC Research reports on the travel trends of this affluent travelling nationality.

Would you like to know more about the key people in the travel-retail industry? Do you want to get to the person behind the job title? If so, then TRI?s latest people column, ?Speaking Personally?, is for you. Our first interview is with SAS Trading area manager?Denmark & Baltic Christian Funch.

Is duty-free liquor the next target for the World Health Organization? By Adele Wolstenhulme.

Nestlé International Travel Retail?s (NITR) latest promotion with Aer Rianta at Dublin airport has resulted in triple-digit sales growth for its  brands.

UK supplier Ambassadors Choice has developed an aeon collection of sterling silver women?s jewellery for travel-retail.

For over a quarter of a century it has been one of the most popular late night watering holes for duty-free executives but time has finally been called on the Camel Club. Owner JT International has announced it will not be running the venue at TFWE in Cannes this October, citing a shift in strategic focus.

The slowing economy in the US has not hit the luxury skincare market, according to New York market research company NPD Group.

The Jones Apparel Group has acquired women?s jewellery manufacturer Judith Jack, which specialises in marcasite and sterling silver designs.

The Nuance Group (Australia) pipped DFS Group to take the title of Asia/Pacific Travel Retailer of the Year at this year?s Raven Fox Awards for Travel-Retail Excellence in Asia/Pacific, held at the TFAP show in Singapore last month.

 In a special Final Word guest appearance for TRI?s Global Travel Retail Summit issue, BAA group retail director Brian Collie gives his view on the challenge facing future travel retailers. In his own words, he calls on the industry to raise its game to distinguish itself from High Street competition.