By Richa Naidu

LONDON (Reuters), – Imperial Brands, OTC: said Tuesday that they were beginning to see a rise in the sales of cigarettes at duty-free shops located in airports and popular European destinations. The COVID-19 restrictions have eased and people are more willing to travel.

When travel restrictions were limited in early stages of the pandemic, luxury goods, tobacco, and alcohol manufacturers were severely affected.

Imperial stated in its annual report for 2021 that travel recovery was still “difficult” to forecast due to the different COVID-19 regulations across Europe. Months later, Winston Cigars and Backwoods cigars made it clear that they were seeing some recovery on the market.

The company stated that “our global duty-free business has begun to recover and we have seen an increase in travel sales in Southern Europe.” It also said it had experienced a similar recovery in Middle East.

It stated that duty-free sales made up about 2% of global annual revenue before the pandemic. On Tuesday, it stated that the company was well on its way to meeting its 2022 goals thanks to its strong European sales. The increase in ecigarettes use and increased demand for heated tobacco has driven its share price to an almost two-year high.

Philip Morris International (NYSE 🙂 a rival in the tobacco business, also claimed in April that higher travel supports volume growth and duty-free shopping around the globe.

Airport shops are also gaining popularity in other industries.

Campari, a drinks group, stated that this month travel retail sales increased by 50% while L’Oreal, a beauty product maker and retailer of cosmetics, saw shipments increase by 5%. Estee Lauder Some markets also experienced strong recovery (NYSE:).

Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oreal, stated that the company is seeing an extremely strong recovery at the start of the year plus 18% with air traffic slowly resuming.

Estee Lauder confirmed that, despite China’s restrictions, travel retail sales have been thwarted in Asia by “a precipitous fall in Chinese travel” in March.