Food Hotel Asia 2008 to be held in Singapore

New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) Asia's largest international food and hospitality trade event 'Food&HotelAsia' will be held during April 22-25 in Singapore.

''The event plays a pivotal role in contributing to Asia's growing food and hospitality industries. FHA2008 will host a network of 3,300 international exhibiting companies from 60 countries and 40 international group pavilions and will have over 38,500 trade buyers from 80 regions,'' Singapore Exhibition Services Director (PR and Conferences) Lindy Wee told reporters here.

According to a survey by Deloitte. all regions--Asia-Pacific, Central and South America, Europe and West Asia--are not only celebrating double-digit growth in revenue per available room, but also in average room rates.

''The Asia-Pacific region has seen a 12.7 per cent growth, driven by business boom, rising investment opportunities by international chains, as well as the global budget airline phenomenon,'' Ms Wee said.

Asia's hospitality sector is actively gearing up to provide more hotel rooms and improve its food and hospitality infrastructure and facilities in order to meet the rising demands of the growing economies.

''Driven by huge surge in both business and leisure travel by domestic and foreign tourists, the Indian tourism and hospitality industries are the third largest net earners of foreign exchange for the country,'' Ms Wee said.

With less than 1,000 days to go for the Commonwealth Games, estimates by the Tourism Ministry expect a rise of up to 80 per cent in hotel rooms in the next two years.

The food processing and retailing sectors in the country are also going through significant expansion, steered by factors like rising consumer demands and improvement of distribution methods and systems.

''The 16th edition of FHA will offer Indian exhibitors and buyers a common ground to network and engage in business activities, a launch pad for exhibitors to push their products and solutions, and a strategic platform to research and source for the latest products, services, solutions and technologies relevant to their business needs,'' Ms Wee said.

FHA2008, a biennial event, provides international buyers an opportunity to acquire intelligence on the latest industry trends and issues, reinforce existing contacts while simultaneously establish new alliances with the business community and key decision makers.

FHA2008 will incluce a series of specialised events like FoodAsia, Wines&SpiritsAsia, Bakery&Pastry, HotelAsia, HospitalityStyleAsia and HospitalityTechnology.

The event will also host the Asia Pacific Travel Catering conference and exhibition. ''The event was included keeping in mind the growing needs of aviation companies to provide food to a larger number of flyers in a short period of time,'' said Ms Wee.

''Workshops will also be held for Halal Trade, Food Safety Forum, Hospitality Finance and Technology etc,'' she added.

UNI SR PDT RS2003