The coronavirus outbreak has substantially altered forecasts for Asia-Pacific duty-free sales this year, takings were originally forecast to reach US$43.4 billion by the end of the year. New calculations show the outbreak will likely cost the industry $8.3 billion off that figure.
“Other Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand with a considerable increase in the number of new cases over the past few days are estimated to worsen the impact,” said Analyst Suresh Sunkara.
“The forecasts may change further during the course of time if the virus spread is prolonged to the second half of this year or if it spreads to other key duty-free markets in the region including India, Malaysia, and Australia, which are currently not significantly affected by the spread.”
Many key airports in the region have closed with travel between countries broadly impacted by the viral threat. Major duty-free operators such as Shilla, Lotte, Shinsegae and China Duty-Free Group are now left re-evaluating their strategies and identifying other consumer groups and markets to help offset a weakening in revenue.
