Liquor sales at global travel retail grew by 4% to 29.1 million cases in 2012 compared to 2011 figures, according to Duty Free/Travel Retail Summary Report 2013 by International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR), a UK-based provider of data on wine, spirits and ready-to-drinks.

Spirits outpaced wines during the period, where spirits grew 5.2% to 21.4 million cases, while wine sales grew by 1% in 2012, driven by still light and sparkling wines.

Among different spirits, Scotch whisky reported largest growth adding 472,700 cases in travel retail in 2012, mainly driven by Johnnie Walker with 310,000 cases.

The overall whisky category performed well, with US and Canadian whisky growing by 9%, Irish whiskey by 8%, Scotch by 7% and other whisky by 5%.

Scotch was followed by vodka with double-digit growth in Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Germany, British Isles, other Eastern European markets and Latin America.

Among different regions, Europe reported an increase of 431,000 cases in 2012, with Western and Southern European countries outpacing their Central and Eastern counterparts.

However, volumes decreased in Nordic countries, the Europe’s biggest market.

In terms of percentage, Africa and the Middle-East reported fastest-growth of 13.7% in 2012, as against 2011 figures.

Asia-Pacific and North America also reported volume growth of 4.2% and 1.9%, respectively in 2012.