The biennial Food & Hotel Asia (FHA) has expanded beyond the space available at its usual home ground, Singapore EXPO (SingEx), that the 2018 edition will occupy all available exhibition space at Suntec Singapore as well.
Billed as two venues, one mega show, FHA 2018 will occupy the 100,000m2 SingEx, the 12,000m2 MAX Atria @ Singapore EXPO and 37,000m2 at level three, four and six at Suntec, according to UBM SES CEO Lindy Wee.
FHA 2016. Photo courtesy www.foodnhotelasia.com
Wee added FHA, which has been growing at 15 per cent for each edition over the last four years, would be split with Suntec housing the non-food, non-edible, and equipment exhibitors under Hotel Asia.
It is not the first time UBM SES has had to separate one of its events. In 2011, Broadcast Asia was located at Suntec and ComunicAsia at Marina Bay Sands. FHA was also split before SingEx opened in the late-1990s and it was housed at the former World Trade Centre and Suntec.
Apart from FHA 2018’s different location themes, the organisers are stepping up logistics planning to shuttle visitors between the city centre and Changi efficiently and also use technology to “live stream” highlights at the two venues to ensure visitors are “not missing anything”.
Wee opined: “There is nothing much we can do, the exhibitors are accepting it, inconvenience is expected and we are minimising the inconvenience.”
In 2016, FHA featured 3,500 exhibiting companies and 80,300 attendees, comprising exhibitors, visitors of which 52 were from overseas, conference delegates and media.
