ASUTIL event opens in Salvador

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The annual Latin American conference heard from top airport authorities on its first day in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

The blue skies of Salvador de Bahia offered a fine backdrop for the first day of Latin American trade association ASUTIL's eighth annual conference, organised in partnership with TRW publisher Raven Fox. A series of lively presentations and candid debate on the current situation of the duty-free industry in the region absorbed delegates during the morning session and some of the more enthusiastic attendees kept up the discussion during lunch.
 
Following the opening of the conference by ASUTIL president Samuel Kauffmann, the association's secretary-general Jose Luis Donagaray highlighted the recovery in the region. A survey of 10 association members recorded an average 47.8% sales increase in the first six months of 2004 and the general feeling is that the momentum will be kept up in the second half of the year.
 
In the morning's keynote address, Brazil's Tourism Minister Walfrido Mares Guia gave details of the country's strategic plan to increase international and domestic tourism, offering hope to travel-retail operators working in the country's airports.
 
One of the best received sessions in the morning gave an insight into commercial strategies at two very different airport groups. Jose Carlos Rosa, retail director of ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, talked of the need to have effective partnerships with local authorities and strong relationships with concessionaires to ensure that the airport's commercial offer was the right one for airport users. ANA's network includes Lisbon, Oporto and Faro as well as three airports on the Azores Islands, and Rosa explained how each airport needs different retail solutions.
 
Marcel Rodriguez, commercial manager of Lima Airport Partners (LAP), gave details of Lima airport's new landside shopping mall. The 5,000sq m (53,800sq ft) Peru Plaza is scheduled to open in February 2005 and plans are well advanced to bring in a number of retailers to give the right mix of categories for travellers. LAP is committed to giving excellent consumer service, said Rodriguez, and has researched consumer needs to improve the shopping experience of the airport user. The authority is hoping to attract 6.8m passengers by 2007 (up from 4.5m in 2003) and is committed to a big increase in non-aeronautical revenues.
 
Pricing issues are always a lively part of the debate at ASUTIL conferences and this year has been no exception. Nestlé International Travel Retail general manager Stewart Dryburgh and Thierry Roquette of Cosmopolitan Cosmetics defended the suppliers' side on the issue of regional pricing, while Enrique Urioste of Interbaires and Gustavo Fagundes of Brasif gave the operators' viewpoint.
 
Fagundes argued that the modern consumer is much more knowledgeable about pricing and compares prices in the domestic market and in other duty-free shops before purchasing. Regional pricing, he said, would always work if there was strong commitment from both retailers and suppliers. Urioste maintained that price was an important motivation for consumers making purchases in Interbaires' stores and making savings against the domestic market was once again possible after the devaluation problems experienced in Argentina two years ago.
 
Nestlé's Dryburgh claimed that the confectioner had a simple and clear approach to pricing and that one of its strengths was the differentiated products they offered in the travel-retail segment. His belief in regional pricing was underlined by the continued growth of the confectionery category and Nestlé's objective remains to double sales in four years. Thierry Roquette also claimed that regional pricing could work if the retailer and the supplier cooperated closely.  
 
Other first-day speakers included Julio Lopez of Aldeasa, Arnaud Naintre of NK Newlook, Jorge Lukowsky of AA2000 and Keith Spinks of the European Travel Retail Council.
 
A full report on ASUTIL 2004 will follow in DFNI.