INTERNATIONAL. The Moodie Davitt Report today announces the most comprehensive employee recognition platform yet seen in the travel retail channel.

The first-ever Travel Retail Superstars Awards & Knowledge Programme will place the spotlight on the thousands of frontline and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped keep a stricken sector going throughout the pandemic.

The event, combining an awards ceremony and a people-centric Knowledge Hub programme focused on the vital role of staff, will be held at the second Virtual Travel Retail Expo this October. The event is hosted by The Moodie Davitt Report with support from digital, design and communications agency FILTR.Qingwa.

The Travel Retail Superstars Awards & Knowledge Programme will embrace the long-established FAB Heroes platform for the travel-related food & beverage sector, while also taking in airport, airline, downtown store and cruise employees as well as others across the travel ecosytem (more details soon).

The Moodie Davitt Report is working with an advisory committee of human resource and training specialists to shape the awards and programme.

They include Marcus Griffin, Global Director of People & Culture at Flash Global in the US and from 2012 until 2020 Senior Vice President – Human resources at Dufry; and Heidi van Roon, President & Founder of the Spark Group of Companies in Canada, which provides a range of recruitment and staffing services for luxury & airport retailers and brands; and others from multiple geographies to be revealed in coming days.

The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie said: “Never has the role, value and commitment of frontline and other employees across our industry been more emphatically underlined or treasured than during the tumultuous months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is these men and women who have kept our industry going, despite the very personal pressures each and every one of them faced in their own lives. Equally, it is they who will play a critical role in leading us to recovery.”

The Moodie Davitt Report was inspired by the Aer Rianta International (ARI) 2020 Star Awards, an initiative which recognised that the company’s people are its greatest asset. The global recognition programme this year culminated in a virtual ceremony that recognised and celebrated the tremendous contribution of team members across the globe. Global Star Award Winner 2020 was Francis Uttam Chari Eknath (left), Retail Sales Manager at Muscat Duty Free (Oman Sales & Services LLC). Runners up were Julie Ann Basco (centre), a Merchandiser from Bahrain Duty Free and Svetlana Apostolidou (right), Bacardi Ambassador with Cyprus Airports Duty Free. 

Taking the lead: Qatar Duty Free team members have maintained healthy and safe trading environments while managing some of the most eye-catching and high-profile promotions in the industry amid the pandemic

“Our previous success with the FAB Heroes programme, combined with the outstanding example set by sector employees during the COVID-19 crisis, has convinced us that this is the moment to put arguably our industry’s great asset centre stage.

“We’re excited about the quality advisors and partners we have already gathered and will be revealing further exciting details soon. Over recent months we, together with our event partners FILTR.Qingwa have repeatedly illustrated our ability to host high-quality virtual events and we believe that our latest innovations will take the concept to new heights.

“As with our inaugural Virtual Travel Retail Expo last year, we will be channelling a significant percentage of proceeds from both events to good causes, including our chosen recipient of 2021, cleft charity Smile Train.”

For more information about the Travel Retail Superstars Awards & Knowledge Programme and/or the Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021, please contact Irene Revilla, Publisher, The Moodie Davitt Report (Irene@moodiedavittreport.com) or Sarah Genest, Vice President Sales & Events (Sarah@MoodieDavittReport.com).

FAB Heroes: Tastes on the Fly’s Antonio Alicea was named FAB Team Member of the Year at the 2019 Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Awards in Dallas in 2019. The FAB recognition will be built into the Travel Retail Superstars Awards & Knowledge Programme.