Singapore airport sees 16 pct growth in retail sales

Singapore's Changi Airport, one of the busiest airport in the world, recorded a year-on-year growth of 16 percent in retail sales for the first ten months of the year, the airport said. Spending by travelers in the airport's duty-free transit areas account for 90 percent of the retail earnings, local television the Channel NewsAsia reported on Monday. The airport said cosmetics, liquor, electronics, candies and luxury goods were the top five categories of products by sales. And the general trend is that the Europeans like electronics, the Chinese love beauty products, while the Indonesians seem to prefer sweets. Commercial takings make up about half of the airport's revenue. "The revenue that we actually gather from our (retail outlets) actually goes towards working out the air hub, strengthening the air hub, and creating the connectivity through Changi and through Singapore," said Ivy Wong, senior vice president of Airside Concessions with the Changi Airport Group.