The Moodie Blog

Meet Monica, Shell and Robert – the small, amazingly dedicated team who run The Smile Train China.
I dropped into their office in downtown Beijing today to hear from Shell Xue (second from left), who heads the team, about their success to date and their plans for the future. What an inspiring story it is.
Amazingly, The Smile [...]

The Moodie Report is in Beijing, China, where in less than two weeks the long-awaited Olympic Games begins. There’s an extraordinary mood of anticipation here in the Chinese capital that hits you from the moment you alight from your plane into the fantastic, almost surreal experience that is Beijing International Airport Terminal 3.

There are staff all [...]

What a great looking shop the new Nuance-operated Arrivals store at Melbourne Airport appears to be. And it’s nice to see the efforts the retailer, fully supported by a progressive and commercially minded airport company, was making on opening day to really engage the travelling consumer. 
Returning nationals are generally in a hurry to clear immigration, get their baggage and get home. So [...]

“Pack less, weigh less, pay less”.  Welcome to Derrie-Air – “the world’s only carbon-neutral luxury airline where you don’t have to choose between living the high life and saving the planet”.
That’s right, an innovative new Philadelphia airline company has come up with a unique way of cutting down on carbon emissions by introducing a ’sliding [...]

If Northern Irish golfer Graeme McDowell should ever find himself short of a sponsor – though after his victory on Sunday in the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, he should have few such worries – he would probably find the doors at Chivas Bros flung open to welcome him.
Sunday’s triumph, ahead of a top-class field including Phil [...]

How cool is a swan? In the case of a new Irish cream liqueur very cool indeed. Yet very, very hot.
We’re talking Coole with an ‘e’ and Swan as in a dreamy, creamy, beautifully-packaged white liqueur rather than the serene, beautiful, white-plumed Cygnus olor bird loved the world over.
Coole Swan is the brainchild of three experienced drinks [...]

How often has the travel retail industry attempted to sel the unsellable? Probably too often for comfort. So maybe we could all learn something from a smash hit new television series in Australia called The Gruen Transfer.
The programme features a section that is indeed dedicated to selling the unsellable. And local sources tell us that the ratings are [...]

Virtually unannounced, one of travel retail’s most successful and enduring partnerships celebrated its 10th anniversary this week.
The partners were The Nuance Group and A.S. Watson, which, on 7 July, marked a decade of combined achievement at Hong Kong International Airport. 
The reason for the lack of overt celebration wasn’t any shyness – it’s just that next month [...]

Sometimes an idea comes along that is so good that one is tempted to ask why no-one thought of it earlier.
Sometimes a retail concept comes along that has ‘winner’ emblazoned all over it.
Both propositions apply in the case of a new partnership between travel retailer Lagardère Services Asia Pacific and Lonely Planet, the independent travellers’ guide [...]

The Moodie Blog is deeply saddened to report on the passing away of Philip Morris, long-time design and layout manager at Duty-Free News International and along with his wife Jeanette a valued contributor to the early success of The Moodie Report.
Philip was a lovely, gentle man with a uniquely creative and free spirit. Work was just [...]