30 Minute Interview

'We expect a 15% rise in India’s participation'

Food Hotel Asia 2008, to be held from April 22-25 in Singapore, is expected to put up a good show. Lindy Wee, director (PR & Conferences), Singapore Exhibition Services, talks about the industry and her expectations from India. By Sanjeev Bhar

Lindy Wee director (PR & Conferences)

What is your take on the growth of the Indian hospitality sector?

The growth of low budget airlines has revolutionised the travel business and led to developments in the hotel business. The demand has risen from five - to three-star to B&B accommodations in India. But this is not exclusive to India. This facet is what is generally happening in the Asian region right now. Looking at India's growth wave, we want to come back to India. Since my last visit, the number of business units has grown immensely. This growth is in the food and hotel sectors.

How do you relate the growth in hospitality to that of institutionalised F&B industry?

As the number of rooms grows, the demand for various functional products too grows like the front house and back-house services. Also, growth in various segments is reason enough for a single product to be available in different categories that suit the requirement of every organisation. Therefore, rooms play an important role in the growth of F&B industry. For example, a hotel kitchen has to keep up with the front office. For that it needs the latest technology and equipment. We want people from this sector to come to FHA08 and experience the latest technology available to the professional.

Is there anything new that FHA08 has to offer?

We have introduced Asia Pacific Travel Catering this year keeping in mind the growing air catering requirements as well as F&B facilities at airports. Equipment for this segment has to be unique due to lack of space in airports and aircraft yet quality can never be compromised. Therefore, the show would be in a position to provide customised high quality equipment for clients. Many people tend to believe that customisation leads to degradation of standards. This show will prove that customisation can be achieved without compromising on quality. Alongside this exhibition, there will be a forum conference, which will cater to the needs of the travel industry. We are also hosting a food safety conference.

What is India's position as a buyer or an exhibitor?

We received 490 visitors in the earlier edition of FHA that was held in 2006. Every year we are increasing the show in terms of size and also expecting to grow as well. We are thereby expecting a rise of around 15 per cent over FHA06. FHA had noticed a remarkable 48 per cent rise of traffic from India from the FHA edition in 2004 to 2006. So, we are pretty hopeful this year as well especially when we have received 17,000 online registrations already.

India is also a very strong market with its F&B industry products growing at a good rate. In terms of the product mix also, we are looking at India to experience the food and non-food segment during the FHA08. The non-food segment will include kitchen equipment for ‘back of the house’ as well as ‘front of the house’ equipment.

Could you also update us on the profile of people expected to visit FHA08 from India?

This year FHA will host Asian Club Managers' Conference combining education, recreation and networking opportunities with club professionals from around the region. Then we will have FHA/AHRA Hotel GM Forum to bring together experts from the hotel industry from different countries (ASEAN region) to discuss trends and strategies and the Halal Trade Forum offering knowledge, tools and real-life case studies to break into the global halal market. Thus we also expect GMs from India.

On the whole, we are expecting 3,300 exhibiting companies from 60 countries/regions for 40 international group pavilions. With strong support from FHRAI to reach a larger audience in India, we have every reason to hope for encouraging participation from India this year.