The Middle East and Africa Duty Free Association held the elections of the board for the new term 2021 - 2023 during the virtual Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

The Middle East and Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) held its first Advocacy webinar of 2021. Entitled ‘The Road to Recovery’, the webinar was dedicated to demonstrating how the industry in Africa and the Middle East can recover given the difficult situation it faces with the COVID-19 crisis. Over 160 participants attended the event from 28 countries.

Today MEADFA held its first regulatory intelligence sharing session dedicated for its members and which will be held monthly. The meeting reflects the organisation’s determination to keep developing its cross-category advocacy capacities and to build relationships with key stakeholders and decision makers in the Middle East and Africa Region. Therefore, Rita Chidiac, the advocacy working group secretary general of MEADFA, recommends intensifying the flow of regulatory intelligence between MEADFA members (Brands, landlords, retailers) to anticipate regulatory threats with a clear teamwork from the Duty free industry.

MEADFA, the Middle East and Africa Duty Free Association is the latest industry trade association to sign up to m1nd-set’s B1S Covid recovery monitor initiative. MEADFA’s decision follows the recent announcements by both the Americas associations ASUTIL and IAADFS as well as the European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC) that they are joining forces with m1nd-set for the research partnership to ensure their respective members benefit from the traffic and shopper insights data. The B1S recovery monitor is a complimentary service provided by the Swiss research agency, which will comprise quarterly reports with key traffic trends and relevant shopper insights, tailored to each regional association, from m1nd-set’s proprietary Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S) data tool.

Today the Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) held its first virtual event outlining how travel retail in the Middle East and Africa is fighting against the impact of COVID-19. Over 150 participants from across the world joined the event.