Retail sales at the world's airports are taking off.
The global airport retail market will become one of the best performing in retail. Sales are expected to exceed 60 percent by 2015, reaching $44.1 billion, reports Datamonitor Retail.
After an unprecedented slump of 5.1 percent in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis, 2010 marked the beginning of a new era as airport retailers achieved growth of 8.4 percent by the independent retail analyst.
The robust growth has been driven in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa. Neither region was as badly affected by the down turn as mature markets, such as Europe. In fact Asia Pacific is set to overtake Europe to become the world’s leading airport market in 2015, with sales set to nearly double from $7.8 billion to $15.2 billion.
"Low cost airlines such as Malaysia’s Air Asia and India’s Spice Jet and IndiGo have made air travel more affordable to the expanding young urban population in the Asia Pacific region," said Anne Marie Davis, analyst at Datamonitor Retail. "This combined with ambitious investment in new infrastructure has helped increase footfall in the region and therefore boost retail sales."
Within retail, it is beauty sales which will be the fastest growing category and this growth will be driven by strong demand in Asia. Over the next five years this sector of airport retail is predicted to grow by more than 80 percent, while growth in alcohol and tobacco is set to slow.
