While Scotch brands are having to work harder to convert Asian travellers, Indian whiskies are thriving at home airports and eyeing overseas expansion, writes Joe Bates.
Over the past decade travel retail drinks promotions have been transformed. Classic promotional activity in airport shops was predominantly price driven, relying on straightforward discounts, volume-driving deals like buy-one-get-one-free, or the lure of gift-with-purchase offers. These price-driven mechanics still have their place, of course, but there has also been a pivot towards immersive, emotional and experience-driven activations that place storytelling and exclusivity at their core. The love many Millennial and Gen Z travellers have for fun, shareable experiences and discovery has driven a lot of this shift, allied to travel retail’s increasing struggle to offer genuine savings versus the domestic market.
A prime example of this experiential-driven approach was on display at Seoul Incheon airport last month, where Lotte Duty Free opened a Glenmorangie Signet Reserve Dessert Bar in its flagship Terminal 2 liquor store in partnership with Moët Hennessy. The activation paired Glenmorangie Signet Reserve with an exclusive chocolate dessert, Équilibre, developed in collaboration with Choi Kyu-sung, a highly acclaimed South Korean pastry chef who owns Pâtisserie MUR in Seoul, widely celebrated as one of the country’s best patisseries.
Signet Reserve is a limited-production expression that builds on the Glenmorangie Distillery’s award-winning Signet, which is distilled once a year using heavily roasted, stout-style chocolate malted barley. Signet Reserve is finished in ex-Pedro Ximénez sherry casks for an additional 12 months to create a whisky offering suitably dessert-like notes of chocolate truffle, toffee, fudge and tiramisu.
The high-profile activation was part of a series of promotional events to celebrate Lotte Duty Free’s first 100 days of trading at Seoul Incheon after returning to the hub after a three-year absence. In late 2025, a combination of lower spending by mainland Chinese travellers, high rental payments and the weak Korean won forced rival retailers Shinsegae Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free to exit their concessions at the airport, leading the airport authority to launch an emergency re-tender. Lotte was one of the winning bidders, opening 15 stores that offer a range of over 240 brands.
Tough business
Lotte’s return to Incheon and its focus on experiential, cross-category activations is a reminder that business in Asia remains tough, with younger travelling shoppers less swayed by transactional price-driven promotional messaging.
In contrast, the mood music surrounding the Indian airport retail sector, a market valued at US$2.83bn by Businessworld India, is much brighter. The market is buoyed by new mid-sized airports such as Noida International in Uttar Pradesh, which opened in March; the country’s swelling, travel-hungry middle class, now nearly 500 million strong; as well as the Indian government’s decision in February to increase the personal duty free allowance for returning Indian travellers by 50%.
The market’s direction of travel was illustrated well in July when Ospree Duty Free, one of India’s major airport retailers, unveiled a 34-year-old Speyside single malt produced by ABD Maestro, a subsidiary of Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD).
Priced at around US$11,538, The Collective Limited Edition 34-Year-Old Single Malt was limited to only 60 decanters, distilled at the old Macallan distillery in 1991. Available at the retailer’s stores across the country in airports such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mangaluru, and Thiruvananthapuram, the release will be showcased in a single-bottle display, highlighting its rarity and ultraluxury positioning.
The growing purchasing power of Indian travellers overseas is also apparent in the global retail launch of a new single malt whisky brand, Serpent’s Cask, which is owned by Indian actor and producer Yash (Naveen Kumar Gowda). Born in Karnataka to working-class parents, Yash shot to national fame playing the lead character in the blockbuster KGF action film franchise. Serpent’s Cask was developed over two years, with Yash working closely on the project. The range comprises four expressions: Classic Red Edition, Reserve 18 Year Old, Reserve 21 Year Old, and the pinnacle expression, Reserve 40 Year Old Single Cask Collector Edition, distilled in 1986, Yash’s birth year.
The fledgling Scotch whisky business has been co-founded by Arjun Ahuja, the co-founder of ecommerce platform Coco Cart and luxury and travel retail executive Manishi Sanwal, who has held senior roles at LVMH, Mumbai Duty Free, Flemingo, Indian multinational Adani, and Voiceback, a mobile app for speech-impaired users. The brand’s initial travel retail focus will be airports in India, wider Asia, the Middle East and Europe with a rollout of the Classic, Reserve 18 and Reserve 21 expressions.
Travel retail spirit buyers outside of India should have their radar switched on for such releases. Indian outbound travel is set to surge this year, with Indian government projections suggesting numbers could reach 40-44 million trips, up from 37-39 million in 2025.
This growth, fuelled by a rising middle class with increasing disposable income, improved international air connectivity, and growing demand for international leisure and business travel, cannot be ignored by travel retail businesses struggling in many cases to convert travelling shoppers from other nationalities.
