Travel Retail on the Front Line as Coronavirus Spreads

PARIS — The coronavirus is rattling the travel-retail industry — including its largest category, beauty — which has been heavily reliant on Asian consumers, especially from China, for growth. The $79 billion travel-retail market, of which $31 billion was rung up by cosmetics and fragrance products in 2018, according to Generation Research’s latest statistics, could be hard hit as the Chinese travel less and tourist footfall drops around the globe. Almost half of China’s population is reportedly facing travel restrictions, as the number of deaths worldwide from the virus exceeds 1,850 and the count of confirmed cases has reached more than 73,000 people. Prior to the health crisis, passenger traffic was said to be increasing by about 6 percent annually, fueled by the rise of the Chinese middle class. There were 22 million Chinese female frequent travelers who purchased prestige beauty in the travel-retail channel at least two-times a year, and 55 million who were traveling once a year and buying, according to Shiseido data. In fact, the whole Asia-Pacific region helped drive travel retail’s strong 12.9 percent sales gain in 2018, with the channel’s revenues there jumping 23.3 percent to make up 49.2 percent of the overall business, Generation Research figures show. Skin care, a

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