While there is a downward trend in the consumption of alcohol, there is a huge opportunity for growth in the spirits industry. At the Tax Free World Association’s (TFWA) Exhibition & Conference in Cannes, Hannah Tan, brands director for The Moodie Davitt Report, pointed to airports as prime areas for sales and profits.
“In the past, airports were merely transit hubs, but now they’ve become destinations within themselves, and there’s a lot of opportunity with that,” she told a panel that was chaired by Diageo’s Managing Director of Diageo Global Travel Andrew Cohen and included chief commercial and digital officer at Avolta; Peter Zehnder, head of global travel retail at Lindt and Sprüngli; and Julie Lassaigne, secretary general of the European Travel Retail Confederation. “And that transformation isn’t happening in isolation. It’s actually supported by numbers as well.
“So in the first half of 2025, UN Tourism said there were 690 million international travellers, and that figure was up by 5% in the same period versus last year. And it’s actually up 4% versus 2019 which, you know, a lot of people consider as a peak of travel.
“But as this is happening, these consumers and travellers that are coming back, they’re not the same people that we were catering to pre-pandemic, there’s a shift – especially among younger, Millennial and Gen Z consumers – to move away from retail transactions and material purchases towards experiences.”
Cruise Ship Travel And The Spirits Industry
Lassaigne pointed to another area of growth: cruise ships.
“We have seen the incredible resilience of transport and of travel,” she said. “Tourism still has a 3-5% traffic growth in terms of air traffic. Looking at the cruise industry, 10% traffic in terms of growth capacity. So I think we still have a nice future ahead of us. I know we hear a lot of gloomy things, but I think in terms of where we are as an industry, we have all the cards in our hands to play better.
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