George Horan, President of Dubai Duty Free, heads an impressive line-up of speakers confirmed for the China Travel Retail event in November.

CTR, the leading networking and educational event for buyers and suppliers operating in the travel distribution channel (airports, airlines, ferries, cruises, downtown duty-free shops, etc.) in China, will be held at the Longemont Hotel in Shanghai from November 12 – 13.

The conference will be opened by Bin Dai, president of the China Tourism Academy, who brief delegates on the current state of China’s travel retail industry.

Horan will deliver a keynote presentation on How International Operators Attract the Chinese traveller.

And Sang Joon Ahn, director of concession 1 team at Incheon International Airport, will provide a case study on How Brands Strengthen the Airport Channel.

Other speakers confirmed include: Beth Brewster, director of retail at Manchester Airport, Stephenie Rodriguez, CEO of MightyMedia, Fangting Sun, research analyst, Euromonitor International, Jun Hu, president, HaoBang Railway Retail Company, and Fred Combe, CEO, China International Duty Free.

Colin Hall, MD of the event’s organiser, Trade, Media & Events, says providing actionable intelligence the audience can take away and implement into their businesses has been key to making previous events a success.

“We are delighted to welcome these high-level speakers to discuss the most pressing issues within the travel retail and airport commercial industries.”

In order to cater to both the travel retailers and the airport commercial players, CTR is co-located with China ACS 2014, which attracts both international and domestic airport authorities, airport commercial companies, retail brands, concessionaires, F&B suppliers and other service providers in China.

China Travel Retail (CTR) is the ideal networking platform for leading buyers and suppliers operating in the travel distribution channel (airports, airlines, ferries, cruises, downtown duty-free shops, etc.) in China. The event is for senior executives working in the duty-free and duty-paid sector  and creates premium opportunities to build rewarding business relationships.

The inaugural CTR event took place at the Marriott City Centre hotel in Shanghai in July 2012. Nearly three-quarters of attendees were Mainland Chinese.