Blueprint is closing 2025 on a high note. The Copenhagen-based travel retail consultancy has delivered another year of growth focusing on helping airports, retailers and brands rethink what comes next.

Thomas Kaneko Henningsen, Blueprint Partner, said, “I do not recall experiencing this degree of unpredictability, instability and rapid change on a global scale during my 25 years in this industry. We are at a critical crossroad where the old travel retail playbook is being phased out and replaced by a new one shaped by younger lifestyle travelers, AI (artificial intelligence) technology, experiential retail, social commerce and highly volatile geopolitics.”

Copenhagen-based consultancy Blueprint is deepening its efforts to bring the duty free and travel retail (DF&TR) industry actionable insights on appealing to Gen Z shoppers, by assembling a panel of consultants from the generation to advise on projects for clients.

“At Blueprint, we believe the best way to anticipate younger shoppers’ impact on travel retail is to invite them into the strategy room,” said Blueprint Partners Sonja Soskic, Karl Walter and Thomas Kaneko-Henningsen.

“Welcoming the next generation of thinkers is a dynamic way to future-proof our work by unlocking raw insight, cultural fluency and mobile-first instincts that challenge old assumptions and shape new perspectives. It is a breath of fresh air.”

The move underscores the influence of Gen Z and how they are expected to make their mark on the travel retail industry in the coming years.

According to m1nd-set research, there are 2.5 billion Gen Z globally – that’s 32% of the population.

Furthermore, Gen Z is expected to account for 1.2 billion  global passengers flying in 2028, when they are on track to outnumber millennials as the largest global airline passenger group.

Business development consultancy Blueprint has become a shareholder in Indivd, a Stockholm-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology company pioneering privacy-first analytics.

The partnership signals a key step forward in Blueprint’s vision of how AI will reshape the airport shopping journey, evolving it from transactional retail into predictable, hyper-personalised and memorable traveller experiences.

“By uniting Blueprint’s strategic foresight with Indivd’s patented and GDPR-compliant AI technology, we have implemented a powerful capability; tracking and predicting shopping behaviour and turning findings into actionable recommendations for airports, retailers and brands,” commented Blueprint partner Karl Walter.

“The best part is that this set-up is easy-to-use, cheap to run and comes with the highest degree of accuracy.”