Key Takeaways:African airports are becoming new epicenters of luxury and beauty retail, driven by rising affluence and intra-African travel.Despite economic volatility, Africa is a high-growth frontier for beauty retail, with expanding malls and a thriving middle class.Global brands like L’Oréal are betting on African travel retail, using flagship airport stores to set new standards for the region.Recently, Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport welcomed travelers into a sleek new Scentopia boutique, marking a pivotal shift in how Africa’s beauty consumers are being served. For decades, the continent’s airports have been overlooked in the global travel retail conversation. However, a growing cohort of African retailers and distributors believes that is about to change.Africa welcomed 74 million international arrivals in 2024, up 12% from 2023 and 7% above prepandemic levels, according to figures released at the UNWTO‑ICAO Ministerial Conference in Luanda, Angola, outpacing global averages. With an expanding middle class and a surge in intra-African travel, airports, spaces that promise both exposure and exclusivity, are becoming new entry points for global luxury and beauty brands.At the center of this is Scentopia, a Ghana-based luxury beauty retailer acquired by Inter-Africa Marketing (IAM) in 2022. Since its founding in 2018, Scentopia has quietly built a regional land retail network spanning Ghana, Senegal, and Mauritius. Now, it’s taking on the skies.