São Paulo – In order to bring Arab and Brazilian hotel and cuisine sector businessmen closer together, the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce is going to bring a group of buyers from the Arab countries to attend business roundtables at the Nova Equipotel trade fair. Equipotel is the world’s fifth largest fair of products, services, food and beverage for hotels and restaurants, and will be held from September 14th to 17th Anhembi Exhibition Pavilion, in the city of São Paulo.
The business meetings will be promoted at the stand of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, which will participate in the fair for the first time. “The goal is to bring eight Arab distributors for the roundtables, which will last two days,” said the coordinator of the Foreign Trade Department of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Francisca Barros. According to her, the business meetings will be organized in a similar fashion to that of the roundtables at the Apas supermarket fair, promoted in May, also in São Paulo.
“The Brazilian companies are going to have pre-scheduled meetings with the Arab distributors. To participate, they will need to enrol with the Marketing Department of the Arab Brazilian Chamber,” said Francisca. Enrolments are not open yet, because the group of Arab buyers has not been defined so far. Distributors from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, Amman, in Jordan, and Beirut, in Lebanon, have already shown interest in attending the meetings.
According to Francisca, the potential for tourism in the Arab countries is huge, generating a strong demand for hotel equipment and appliances. “Equipotel is a great opportunity,” she added.
This will be the 47th edition of the fair, and is expected to receive more than 1,200 brands and companies in an area of over 20,000 square metres. The area is 2.8% larger than in the last edition, in 2008. Attendance is expected to exceed 50,000 professionals in the decoration, equipment, food and beverages, bed, table and bath linen, hygiene and cleaning, computers and telecommunication, services, and leisure sectors.
The event’s organisers are also going to promote a business meeting for exhibitors and businessmen in the hotel and cuisine sectors. In the last edition, around 40 exhibiting companies participated in the roundtables with 15 hotel industry professionals.
On the sidelines of the fair, four events will be held in the same premises. They are: Equipe Food&Drinks, a food and beverage exhibition; Equip Spa&Wellness, an area destined for companies that supply products and services for the wellness segment; Equip Conference, a cycle of lectures on hotels and cuisine, and Equip Design; a decoration and architecture exhibition turned to hotels.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
