‘HORECA Jordan to showcase products of food, hospitality industries’

AMMAN — Around 80 international companies will participate in a hospitality and food services exhibition that opens in the capital on Tuesday, organisers announced on Sunday.

At a press conference to announce HORECA Jordan 2014, Mohammad Ziyadat, Lawrence & Husseini Consult representative, said Jordan is hosting a HORECA exhibition “for the first time”.

“Companies specialised in hotel, food and restaurant products... from Italy, Brazil, Tunisia, the UAE, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine will take part in the exhibition,” Ziyadat said.

Established in 1993, HORECA is the region’s largest annual meeting place for both the hospitality and food and beverage service industries, according to the Jordan exhibition’s website.

Organised by Lebanese company Hospitality Services S.A.R.L, ExpoJordan, and Lawrence & Husseini Consult, the three-day event will be held at Zara Expo Centre at the Grand Hyatt Amman Hotel, receiving visitors daily from 4pm to 9pm.

HORECA Jordan is organised in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry, and with the support of local and international stakeholders.

Tourism Minister Nidal Katamine is scheduled to inaugurate the exhibition at 3pm on Tuesday, according to the organisers.

 “The exhibition will be held in Jordan annually in October starting from 2015,” Jordan Tourism Board Director General Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat said.

Arabiyat stressed the importance of holding such events in Jordan for their role in developing the tourism industry and services, highlighting the development the sector has achieved during the past few years.

“Convention tourists spend five to eight times more than regular tourists [in the country],” he said, noting that the tourism sector, which contributes 14 per cent of the gross domestic product, is the second highest provider of hard currency after expatriate remittances.

“Jordan is the fourth country to host a HORECA exhibition after Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” said Joumana Damous, managing director of Hospitality Services, which owns the trademark for HORECA.

HORECA, a “distinguished international exhibition and event that occurs annually”, is an acronym made up of the two initial letters of the words hotel, restaurant and café.

The exhibition will include a cooking competition with the participation of more than 90 chefs representing local hotels and restaurants.

An international jury will supervise the competition. This year’s exhibition will also feature bed-making and coffee-serving contests.

Issam Fakhr Eddin, president of the Jordan Restaurants Association, said the tourism sector has developed despite the difficult regional situation, noting that it provides more than 100,000 job opportunities.