Organisers of the International Hospitality Forum in Jordan in late October have said the event surpassed all expectations, proving to be the first successful forum of its kind in Amman.
The IHF is an offshoot of the annual Horeca exhibition, held in Lebanon for the past eight years. It was held at Zara Expo, considered Amman's leading exhibition centre. Around 90 exhibitors from Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai, Italy, Germany and Luxembourg representing hundreds of brands, goods and services related to the hotel, restaurant and catering industries took part in the event. "The IHF had a much better outcome than expected despite the recent political developments," said Joumana SalamŽ, managing director of Horeca and co-organiser of the IHF, along with the Jordanian company, Events Unlimited. Both companies have decided to hold an even bigger event next year, solidifying their plans to turn the IHF, like Horeca, into an annual meeting place for the hospitality industry in the Middle East. They said that an in-house survey conducted by Hospitality Services, the company that organises the IHF and Horeca, showed that only 1.75 per cent of exhibitors said they would not participate in next year's event. Over 96 per cent rated the event's organisation as "very good" or "good," while 86 per cent said the exhibition met their expectations, they said. Local support was also strengthened with the participation of Jordan's tourism minister Taleb Rifai, and of the Jordan Tourism Board. The forum featured a number of seminars and demonstrations of interest to professionals in the industry. A test kitchen, sponsored by Awar company of Jordan, featured chefs from leading hotels and restaurants.