The Middle East & Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) became an officially recognized entity within the global duty free and travel retail business in May 2001.

Founded by nine of the leading travel retail organizations of the Middle East, the actual membership of MEADFA now stands at 75.

Located in the Dubai Airport Free Zone as a non-profit organization, MEADFA was set up to create unity among the region’s duty free industry. The goal was to bring official recognition to the region Duty Free industry, raise awareness of the industry’s contribution to the greater travel and tourism industry infrastructure, and provide representation for its member companies.

The main objectives are to:

• Encourage closer links between retailers and brand suppliers in the Middle East in order to facilitate growth of the industry in this region.
• Group together all persons who are active, or who show an interest in these fields.
• Organize seminars, conferences, and training programs related to the duty free retail industry in this region.
• Represent the regions duty free industry vis-á-vis government agencies and the travel industry.

Another key objective of the association is to encourage positive working dynamics between retail members and their brand suppliers.

At present, the focus is on grouping together as many Middle East & Africa based duty free retailers as possible to not only facilitate the growth of the region’s industry, but to establish standards for quality a hallmark of duty free trading in the Middle East and Africa.

MEADFA’s objective of organizing conferences, and seminars was realized in 2002 with the inauguration of the annual regional industry conference.

The MEADFA Conference welcomes yearly over 500 delegates, representing multinational and regional companies arriving from more than 32 countries. MEADFA’s annual event has certainly set a benchmark for quality regional conferences.