Events
TFWA WORLD EXHIBITION &
CONFERENCE CANNES 2019
Attendance tops 7.5k at TFWA World Exhibition & Conference
The 35th TFWA World Exhibition & Conference closed
on an upbeat note as TFWA President Alain Maingreaud
announced that a total of 7,531 delegates visited the
exhibition halls during the week, an increase of 7% from
2018.
The TFWA World Exhibition & Conference took place
in Cannes from September 29th to October 4th. The
conference on Monday also attracted record numbers,
with over 2,000 people filling the auditorium. The Rt. Hon.
Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,
shared a number of candid anecdotes from his years at
the centre of world politics, leaving his attentive audience
with the advice to ‘start each day with purpose, and go to
bed counting your blessings’.
With 504 exhibitors and an increase in floor space to
23,443m², up from 22,759m² last year, the exhibition was
also a quantifiable success. But the numbers only told
half the story. The quality is also rising, and many of the
brands, including a number that had taken full advantage
of the show’s beach-side location to host meetings in the
Cannes sunshine, had clearly invested to up their game.
Innovation was very much a theme of the week. The
TFWA Innovation Lab proved to be a popular addition to
the exhibition, and provided a compelling insight into what
the duty free and travel retail industry might look like in the
future. While it occupied a more spacious location than its
predecessor, TFWA Digital Village, there was no shortage
of visitors, and the aisles of the exhibition were bustling to
the last day.
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