Running for three months Dufry’s annual Whisky Festival is now well underway, with the aim of engaging and entertaining customers with in store tastings, live events and immersive experiences.

Hosted in up to 50 Dufry stores, across 36 airport locations and in 19 countries, Whisky Festival is an omnichannel campaign, designed to appeal to whisky novices and connoisseurs alike. Throughout the 13-week promotion, customers are discovering an exciting variety of in-store activities and online content in support of this legendary spirit!

A key part of this year’s Festival is a series of live in-store masterclasses led by whisky experts and representing many of the iconic whisky brands such as Dewar’s, Johnnie Walker and Chivas. Passengers can learn more about how to choose and drink whisky, the different types of whiskies there are, how to mix whisky based cocktails and much more! To date in April and May, a series of around 40 masterclasses have taken place in locations including the UK, Spain, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

Using VR technology, customers have also been able to experience a virtual tour of the Jameson distillery, with the combination of audio, whisky tasting and virtual reality delivering a truly immersive and sensorial experience.

A series of podcasts – Whisky Conversations by Dufry – have also been produced as part of the Whisky Festival campaign. They can be accessed through our Reserve & Collect website here - WhiskyFestival - and are also being streamed on Spotify and YouTube.

Narrated by various experts, the entertaining podcasts help bring whisky to life for passengers whilst they are in the airport setting and waiting to board their flight. Each podcast takes a detailed look at a particular brand and explores different topics such as the history of whisky, the story of the distilleries themselves and most importantly, how to just enjoy and drink this majestic spirit!

The Whisky Festival still has much more to offer as it continues to run to the end of June. There will be more live masterclasses, including an immersive Johnnie Walker Blue tasting. Customers also have the chance to win a “Journey of Flavour” experience at Johnnie Walker’s historic premises in Princes Street, Edinburgh! After a guided tour of the building, winners will be treated to a lunch in the Johnnie Walker 1820 rooftop restaurant, which enjoys incredible views of Edinburgh Castle!

Some lucky customers are also about to discover if they have won a fantastic VIP distillery tour of the John Dewar & Sons Distillery in Aberfeldy. The winners will discover the story of the world’s most awarded blended Scotch whisky and see how Aberfeldy Single Malt is crafted. And of course the visit will include tastings hosted by the distillery’s expert guides to help them appreciate the exciting flavours! You can discover more about what's to come through Dufry's Social Media profiles and the Red By Dufry Newsletter, which is sent to all Red By Dufry members.

Commenting on this year’s Whisky Festival Augusto Deymonnaz, Global Marketing Director for Dufry said, “We wanted to bring the world of whisky to life for everyone with this year’s festival and to really connect with our customers via in-store activations, as this is the best way to really elevate the travel retail experience for them. With whisky, there is so much to learn and discover and through the combination of whisky experts, live tastings, immersive virtual experiences and digital content, we wanted to connect with as many of our customers as we can. We are extremely proud of the longstanding relationships we have built with so many celebrated brand partners and have enjoyed working in close collaboration with them to bring this very experiential Whisky Festival to life. We look forward to sharing all the excitement with our customers – both online and in our stores - until the end of June!”