Strong support offered at Asian tobacco meeting

Gavin Lipsith

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A workshop at TFWA Asia Pacific was attended by representatives from several key retailers and companies across all product categories

The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association is to coordinate the regional defence of duty-free tobacco sales, delegates to yesterday's TFWA Asia Pacific tobacco workshop were told. The Nuance Group director of business development and corporate relations Asia Pacific Christian Strang said the association was willing to provide information, addresses and advice on lobbying governments in the region, which European Travel Retail Council secretary general Keith Spinks described as the most worrying in the industry's tobacco campaign.

"The threat is real. It's not going to go away and you must not become complacent," Spinks told the well-attended meeting.

Spinks later told RavenFox.com that he had been delighted with the number of delegates attending the workshop, which included representatives from liquor, confectionery and beauty suppliers as well as retailers and tobacco companies. "It is fantastic that the association is supporting the campaign so strongly right from the start," he said.

The workshop included presentations from Spinks, Strang and King Power Group's Sunil Tuli, and was moderated by Travel Retail Business editor Doug Newhouse.

It was followed by an open discussion on several of the issues facing the industry and duty-free tobacco in Asia Pacific, with comments from Dubai Duty Free managing director Colm McLoughlin and Alpha Orient Lanka managing director Paul Topping.