European Travel Retail Council Cannes workshop highlights industry threats

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The European Travel Retail Council is urging all travel retailers and suppliers to attend the Cannes workshop, which will deal with immediate and long-term threats to the trade

The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) is hosting a workshop entitled ?Tobacco and Future Potential Threats to Travel Retail Trading' at the Cannes show this month. The workshop will update the industry on the latest developments with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) tobacco treaty and its threat to duty-free sales, as well as examining potential threats to other product categories.
 
The Workshop, will take place on Tuesday October 19 in the Palais des Festivals, Auditorium I, level 4 at 9am, and the ETRC is urging retailers and suppliers of all product categories to attend. ?The focus of the WHO and other international institutions today is now on many lifestyle issues, particularly those associated with obesity,? said secretary general Keith Spinks. ?Health activists see the tobacco treaty as a precedent for action against other industries that are perceived to threaten health. We must be aware how seriously the tobacco issue could affect us in the future - the threat to the duty-free and travel-retail trade is real and immediate."
 
Spinks will introduce the workshop and outline progress in the campaign to retain duty free tobacco. The status of the treaty will be reviewed and the regions and countries where the most immediate threat exists will be identified.
 
The Travel Retail Business managing editor Doug Newhouse will moderate an open session discussing how the industry should protect its business now and in the future.