ITDC to open duty-free shops in partnership with retailers

The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is in discussions with home-grown retail chains, as well as global retailers to form a 50:50 joint venture to run duty-free shops at international airports in India. The government-owned hospitality chain, which lost almost all of its duty-free shops (barring two) to others as a result of the competitive bidding in the last couple of years, intends to regain its market share to an extent in the next one year. ITDC is preparing to participate in the bidding process for 15 locations that are coming up for renewal of licences by the Airports Authority of India in the next one year. They are looking at various retail chains, such as Future Group and Spencer`s Retail, among others, to have a 50-50 joint venture company to open duty-free shops at airports, as well as sea ports, in the coming one year. The company, which had 38 duty-free shops till 2006 across India, is managing only one duty- free shop at the Goa airport and a second one will be inaugurated by the end of this month at Coimbatore.