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MEADFA cancels 2020 conference

The board of the Middle East and Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) has cancelled its 2020 conference due to the “severe economic impact” of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global travel retail sector.

The MEADFA 2020 conference has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The MEADFA Conference had been scheduled to take place from 23-24 November in Dubai.

MEADFA will instead launch a series of interactive online forums to support the travel retail industry in the Middle East and Africa, and beyond.

The association will continue its training event programme with a new e-learning format. Further information will be given to MEADFA members soon.

Furthermore, MEADFA has decided to defer membership fees for a year.

Haitham Al Majali, MEADFA president, said: “After continuously monitoring the current health crisis and staying in close contact with our partners and delegates, we have decided to cancel this year’s MEADFA Conference.

“This was an extremely difficult decision to take, given the importance of the event and its role in supporting our advocacy work, but the board unanimously feels that it would not be appropriate to go ahead with the event in the current context.

“We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops, before announcing the dates for our next conference. We thank our members, sponsors and business partners across the region for their understanding.”

MEADFA has a partnership with the Tax Free World Association (TFWA).

Alain Maingreaud, TFWA president, said: “MEADFA has the full support of TFWA at this challenging time for all of us in duty free and travel retail. We look forward to helping manage the rescheduled MEADFA Conference, which will provide an overdue opportunity for our industry to gather and plan the recovery in the Middle East and Africa.”

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