Records broken again at this year’s TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference as attendance tops 3,000
The largest ever number of visitors attended the 22nd TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference. This year the event saw 3,087 visitors from the duty free and travel retail industry come through its doors, a figure that is up 6% from 2,905 who attended the event in 2016, and up 19.1% from 2,591 in 2015.
These figures included representatives from 1,220 companies, up by 3% from 1,186 in 2016 and up by 16.9% from 1,044 in 2015. There were 1,273 key buyers at this year’s event, an increase of 18% from 1,081 in 2016 and up 29.1% from the 986 in 2015. Attendees from 301 companies increased by 10.3% from the 273 in 2016 and rose 16.2% from the 259 in 2015.
The exhibition occupied a total of 10,254 square metres, up 4% from 9,817 square metres in 2016. A total of 316 companies exhibited, up 2% from 310 the previous year; 76 of these companies were new exhibitors. Among the newcomers were a raft of internationally renowned names and exciting up-and-coming brands including Giorgio Armani, Guerlain, Be Relax and Woollip.
385 meetings were arranged through the TFWA ONE2ONE meeting service and those registered included 41 airports, 44 airlines and inflight sales operators, and 11 cruise and ferry companies.
The conference and workshops were also well attended with 1,440 delegates hearing from a range of experts from duty free and travel retail and beyond. This is a rise of 4% on last year’s figure of 1,383.
A record 989 guests enjoyed the elegant Welcome Cocktail at the iconic Raffles Hotel in Singapore, up from 851 last year. 555 attended the Chill-Out Party at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and 746 came to the Singapore Swing Party at Universal Studios, Sentosa Island.
“We were delighted to see record figures across all key parameters at this year’s TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference,’ said TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen. ‘If ever we needed it, the event was confirmation of the huge importance of this region to the great industry that is duty free and travel retail.”
