Avolta CEO Xavier Rossinyol underlines the power of travel retail at World Economic Forum

Avolta CEO Xavier Rossinyol participated in a high-profile panel discussion at the World Economic Forum’s ‘The Way We Will Travel’ session last month (22 January).The session brought together leading figures from government and industry to explore the evolving landscape of global travel and tourism.

Joining Rossinyol in the discussion were Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama; Saudi Arabia Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb; Trip.com Group CEO Jane Sun and EU Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas. It was moderated by CNN anchor and British journalist Richard Quest.

The panel engaged in a dynamic conversation on the future of travel, addressing key themes such as ‘unbalanced tourism’, the role of technology in travel, the evolving expectations of passengers and the political, environmental and bureaucratic challenges facing the travel and tourism industry in 2025 and beyond.

Rossinyol emphasised the crucial role of non-aeronautical revenues in driving growth within the tourism sector. He said: “Tourism is a great industry but for that you need infrastructure and key to that infrastructure are airports. However, to fund that infrastructure you need the commercial income you generate at airports, which is what we do.

“For that, you need to sell to the passengers,” he added. “Interestingly enough, the number of passengers buying at airports is only 20%. That means they don’t find what they want. That means the opportunity is huge to generate money for everyone that is in the ecosystem.”

Speaking on the potential of new technologies in removing travel pain points and managing tourist traffic, Rossinyol said: “At the Sagrada Familia [the famed Barcelona basilica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site considered Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece] there used to be a three-hour queue to enter. Now, after they established pre-booking, the queues are only 20 minutes long.

“Using artificial intelligence, you can manage tourists and help them decide what to do. If you tell a tourist that there will be no crowds at 8am, then they will wake up earlier to go to the attraction.”

When questioned about how Avolta is adapting its retail offer to deliver newness and relevance to travellers, Rossinyol said: “We had 520 million customers last year. The challenge is how do you adapt to consumer demand. Sometimes what happens is you end up selling the same brands in the same places. Localisation and sense of place, which helped win some business in Saudi Arabia, as well as the combination of global food and local food means that you sell more.

“What we want is people to go to the airport to enjoy the experience, not because they have to. We want passengers to have more time to enjoy entertainment, retail, gastronomy and experience.”