High-profile promotions (HPPs) and other attention-grabbing activities by beauty brands at airports are increasing—and these marketing and sales projects appear to have also been stepped up in scale since the pandemic.One reason airport activations have become bigger is because the major beauty multinationals like Coty, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, and LVMH’s beauty division are fighting it out for share of sales in a travel market that was decimated by Covid-19. The channel is recovering, but it is taking a while.In Europe, passenger traffic has only just topped 2019 levels—that means almost five years of lost revenue. In July, LVMH admitted that international travel had only “partially recovered” in Europe and important locations like Hong Kong and Macau. It’s therefore not surprising that brands and retailers want to claw revenue back—and increasing average transaction values (ATVs) from every passenger has become a priority. Which is where HPPs can help.France-based Elba Group—which specializes in marketing and visual merchandising in luxury and selective distribution channels including travel retail—has seen the promotions uptick; so much so that it is on an acquisition path to be better represented in all global regions.Mathieu Vazart, who heads up the company’s global travel channel (GTR), said, “Travel retail has been fantastic for us, opening many new doors globally since the brands’ GTR teams are small but managing large regions. So they need key partners with global yet local support due to sustainability priorities. This led us into a strategic global growth plan, needing production sites around the world to support our clients.