WHAT IS NEXT FOR TRAVEL-RETAIL SPIRITS?

Travel retail took a pounding during the pandemic but with international travel restrictions being loosened, spirit-loving travellers can once again look forward to an exciting new range of exclusives from distillers worldwide

The pandemic dealt a once-in-ageneration blow to the travel-retail business. Last year, 4.5 billion fewer people flew from airports worldwide than they did in 2019, according to Airports Council International. At the same time, international tourist arrivals were still 71 per cent below pre-covid levels, according to the World Tourism Organization.

This creaky recovery in international travel led to duty-free spirit sales only reaching 45 per cent of 2019 volumes last year. Moreover, drinks industry researcher the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis forecasts it will be 2024 before sales recover to pre-covid levels. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, and drinks-loving travellers can still console themselves with the fact that drinks brands haven’t deserted travel retail just yet.

Online alcohol sales may have rocketed during the pandemic, but travel retail has retained its position as the prime shop window for luxury drinks. Scotch whisky distilleries have taken the lead in restocking depleted duty-free spirit shelves with new releases, many of them with sky-high prices, but there have been some more modestly positioned launches.

In October this year, for instance, William Grant & Sons is launching a new travel-retail exclusive Glenfiddich range across Europe.

The Perpetual Collection was made with the distillery’s sherry-influenced solera vat ageing process, where the whisky is matured in vats that are never emptied. Each new successive filling of the vat builds on the flavours of the past, enhancing the liquid’s character, dimension and complexity.

The Perpetual Collection comprises four numbered expressions: Vat 01, Vat 02, Vat 03 and Vat 04, ranging in price from £47 for Vat 1, a sweet and spicy whisky matured in bourbon and red wine casks, to £90 for Vat 4, an 18-yearold whisky aged in oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, offering aromas of oak, ripe orchard fruits and baked apples.

“This is Glenfiddich’s biggest launch in global travel retail in the last decade – the perfect celebration of the world of travel opening back up. A range of whiskies that never sits still, for travellers always in motion,” says William Grant

& Sons head of customer marketing global travel retail Lindsay Hitzeroth.

While Scotch whisky remains by far the largest brown spirits category in travel retail, world whiskies are gaining ground too. For instance, in August this year, India’s fourth largest spirits producer Radico Khaitan launched a new travel-retail exclusive Rampur single malt whisky with Delhi Duty Free at Indira Gandhi international airport to mark India’s Independence Day.

Rampur Trigun takes its name from the Hindi name meaning “harmony of three” in English, as the whisky is matured in three different types of casks: American bourbon barrels, Champagne casks and Sauternes wine barrels from Bordeaux. With a recommended retail price of US$200 for a 75cl bottle, Rampur Trigun offers tropical fruit notes of mango, lychee, pear and mango on the nose, sweet vanilla notes on the palate and a long finish.

Cruise industry raises bar for onboard drinks

Airports are only one piece of the travel-retail jigsaw, of course. The cruise industry, another important sector, was one of the hardest-hit travel sectors during the pandemic. Only 13.9 million passengers went on a cruise last year, 53 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. The business has bounced back this year, however, despite ongoing difficulties in hiring enough crew, ever-changing restrictions and fresh Covid outbreaks, making itineraries subject to constant changes.

Around 90 per cent of the global cruise fleet was back in service by the midway point of 2022 and 31 new cruise ships are scheduled to come into service during the year, including giant new vessels such as the Disney Wish, Carnival Celebration and Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, capable of carrying nearly 5,500 guests.

Long the preserve of the silver-haired, cruising is becoming more popular with younger Millennials, forcing cruise lines to up their game when it comes to onboard bars and restaurants. For instance, the new Disney Wish features a Hypersonic Lounge styled as a spaceship and inspired by the Star Wars movies. The lounge boasts virtual windows offering views of the galaxies and visits to fanfavourite locales such as Batuu and Tatooine.

More serious cocktail enthusiasts should seek out the Alchemy Bars onboard Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships. With their old-time pharmacy feel and white-coat-wearing bartenders, the Alchemy Bars offer themed flights of cocktails with titles such as Passion Potions, Energizing Elixirs, Relief for What Ails and Cocktail Therapy. Examples of cocktails offered include a Barrel Aged Negroni made with Campari, Bulldog Gin and Cinzano 1757 aged in oak barrels, and a Cucumber Sunrise featuring Belvedere Vodka, watermelon nectar, muddled cucumber, freshly squeezed lime juice and a splash of orange juice.

Holland America-owned Rotterdam’s awardwinning Half Moon Bar brims with maritime history, offering a unique look at the cruise line’s history through the lens of cocktails. Drinks on the menu include: The Original, which commemorates Holland America’s first ship Rotterdam I and is made with

Dutch genever; Three Mile Run, a gin-based Prohibition cocktail that tells the story of the cruise line’s Prohibition-era cruises to nowhere for New Yorkers – where onboard bars could legally open; and the Champagne-based May She Be Blessed, an ode to the godmothers who bless each new Holland America ship as they are launched.

Cruise lines have even partnered with distilleries to make spirits onboard. For example, Devon-based craft distillery Salcombe Distilling Co. produces, labels and bottles the maritime-inspired Marabelle Gin onboard P&O Cruises’ Iona cruise ship in Anderson’s Bar and Library. The gin’s botanical mix features heather, green apple, blackberry, rose petals

and mint, as well sea kelp to add richness and a hint of salinity.

“From the name and the design of the bottle to the ingredients, every detail has been carefully thought through,” explains Angus Lugsdin, Salcombe Distilling co-founder. “Marabelle means ‘star of the sea’ – a fitting choice of name which evokes the experience of standing under the stars, as if on a ship out at sea – celestial and unforgettable.”

Similarly, P&O Cruises has also partnered with the Jersey-based Shorts Boys Distillery to produce a rum onboard its newest ship

Arvia, with the distillery located in the ship’s Anderson’s Bar. The new 40% ABV Tidal Rum is a blend of golden Caribbean rums distilled in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and the Dominican Republic, each aged in ex-bourbon casks for between two and three years. The rum is then infused with oak-smoked pepper dulse seaweed foraged from Jersey’s beaches at fullmoon tides, giving the rum a distinctive oceansalted caramel flavour. Following the rum’s launch, which will take place this December, Tidal Rum will recreate the recipe and bottle it onshore, ready to share and serve to guests across the P&O Cruises fleet.

Rum ready to shine in duty free

Rum has never had star billing in dutyfree. There were just four rums among the top-selling 50 spirits in duty-free in 2020, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis: Bacardi, Captain Morgan, Barceló, and Cruzan. Encouragingly, there are signs that travellers are beginning to thirst for less mainstream rums on their travels. For instance, the fast-growing Seychellois Takamaka Rum has recently opened a new rum store at the island’s airport.

The 330-square-metre store features lots of local design touches such as driftwood flooring, copper-pipe detailing inspired by Takamaka’s Trois Freres Distillery, tables made from rum barrels and a back-wall cocktail bar modelled after the local beach hut bars and complete with beach shack-style roofing. The store also sells branded merchandise, including sunglasses, caps and flip-flops.

A full range of award-winning Takamaka

Rum is available to purchase in the new shop, including the company’s newly launched The St André Series, a diverse and complex range of four blended rums: Extra Noir, Zepis Kreol, Pti

Lakaz and Grankaz. Many of these rums boast highly involved maturation processes. For instance, Pti Lakaz is a pot-distilled Seychelles cane rum from three different barrels, including two port casks, which is blended with pot- and column-distilled molasses rum that’s been aged for three years in ex-bourbon casks, as well as an eight-year-old Bajan Foursquare molasses rum. Bottled at 45.1% ABV and priced at SCR1,050 (£64.85), the non-chill-filtered liquid is full of rich fruity notes of star anise and dried cocoa beans, with a complex finish full of dry spice.

Cognac concentrates on Hainan

Before the pandemic, Cognac played a vital part in the duty-free spirits mix, accounting for 20 per cent of sales by value, according to the IWSR. Chinese travellers generated the lion’s share of these sales, which explains why the big Cognac houses have recently invested so much money in Hainan, the domestic duty-free island province to which the mainland Chinese have been allowed to travel during the pandemic.

For instance, in June this year, Pernod Ricard-owned Martell opened a new 140-square-metre luxury boutique in Hainan’s Haikou Mova Mall. The new store boasts a host of immersive experiences, including fully digitalised merchandising units, robot bartenders and VIP tastings. One of the store’s highlights is the Martell Untouchable

Taste, which guides shoppers through the Martell range, offering personalised recommendations based on their preferences. This recommendation is then shared with a Martell robot bartender, which conjures up the shopper’s chosen Cognac served neat, over ice, or mixed into a cocktail. The Martell boutique is great for gifting, offering rare opportunities for personalising Cognac with bespoke bottle engravings and customised metallic stickers for Chinese travellers to take home to friends and family. A luxury gift-wrapping service is also available in-store.

Hennessy has also been using the latest technology this year at the fine wine and spirits store Les Caves Particuleres at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Developed under the supervision of Renaud Fillioux de Gironde, Hennessy’s eighth-generation master blender, the interactive platform uses disruptive technology to “rouse memories, spark interest and stir desire”. After selecting their preferred flavour and olfactory notes, travellers were guided through the flavour profiles of Hennessy XO, Hennessy XXO, Hennessy VSOP, James Hennessy and Hennessy Paradis Cognacs.

Pisco has a chance to shine

Regional spirits often get overshadowed by more popular international spirits, but airport retailers are finally beginning to showcase local favourites. A memorable recent case in point is a luxury Pisco that French travel retailer Lagardère Travel Retail launched at Lima’s Jorge-chávez airport. Tacama, South America’s oldest vineyard, produced a limitededition exclusive Demonio de los Andes 'Parras Centenarias' pisco made from vines more than 120 years old.

Tacama's master winemaker describes the new pisco as “completely transparent” with herbal and white fruit aromas and flavour and "an extremely pleasurable persistence”. Priced at over US$360 and with only 200 bottles available, Tacama and Lagardère Travel Retail have elevated pisco, a humble, unaged brandy from South America, into a truly luxury spirit. The example of Demonio de los Andes 'Parras Centenarias' gives us a glimpse of what the post-pandemic travel retail businesses like Lagardère Travel Retail can offer adventurous travellers eager to try something different. Let’s hope other travel retailers follow their lead.