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Coronavirus likely to impact airport travel, retail worldwide

January 31, 2020

Airport passenger traffic, as well as airport retail environments, will more than likely feel the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on a global basis.

While airport retail sales has been projected to hit $48.2 billion this year, a healthy spike of 6.1% from 2019, that number may be much less given the severity of the continuing coronovarius outbreak, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

The main culprit will a drop in travel by Chinese consumers.

"The prevention of travel for Chinese consumers will impact the performance of airport retail worldwide. Over the last few years airport retailers, especially those in Europe, have tailored their propositions, integrated Chinese payment solutions and invested in Mandarin-speaking staff to target Chinese passengers and maximize sales growth opportunities. If outbound tourism from China suffers as a result of coronavirus, airport operators and retailers must adapt their strategies to target other passengers," said Honor Strachan, principal analyst at GlobalData, in a press release.

The release noted that the 2003 SARS event hit tourism spend hard which led to airlines grounding planes. The coronavirus has already forced the cancellation of the Chinese New Year holiday, a big retail season.