Airport Futures: Responsive Retail explores the future evolution of travel retail in an increasingly automated world, mapping out how humans and machines can co-create a model prioritising convenience, relevance, and discovery. Through a combination of global research and speculative futures, we showcase how humans and machines can co-create new forms of travel retail that honour both sides of the equation: the frictionless and the meaningful, the efficient and the experiential. In doing so, we seek to define a model of airport retail fit for the next era of movement, one that transforms efficiency into an experience in itself.
Airport Futures: Responsive Retail
Mapping the possibilities for the next travel retail experience.
Details
Report
2025
Travel retail is at a crossroads: air travel is increasing, but passengers’ needs and expectations are changing. Travellers are carrying less, moving faster, and embracing digital-first services that prioritise convenience over accumulation. In order to meet the needs of the next generations, travel retail must find new ways to re-invent itself.
In the not-so-distant future, a traveller may be able to move from curb to gate in under ten minutes. The question then becomes where travel retail fits into that future.
Airport retail is primed for a change. While the industry currently faces declining relevance, increasingly brief dwell times, and outdated perceptions of Duty Free, the near future brings both urgency and opportunities.
Historically, Duty Free has thrived, and relied, on spending from Boomers and Gen X — generations that embraced airport ‘bargain’ shopping as an integral part of the travel ritual. But, this is shifting fast. Purchasing power has passed to Millennials, Gen Z, and soon Gen Alpha, bringing fresh expectations to airport retail.
Younger generations increasingly view airport retail as merely a way to pass the time. This weakened perception, coupled with superior online and immersive high street retail experiences, puts airport shopping at risk of obsolescence without substantial differentiation. The path forward demands a redefinition of what airport retail is — and what it could become.
This report explores two co-existing futures for airport retail: one future driven by automation, data, and AI-enhanced personalisation; and a second future anchored in the irreplaceable value of human connection. Through these lenses, we examine how today’s technological, cultural, and behavioural shifts are shaping tomorrow’s experiences, across retail, Duty Free, food and beverage, marketing, and ancillary services.