Hotel Hospitality & Food 2012 Show to promote industry

Nipuni WIMALAPALA

The Industry and Commerce Ministry is a leading facilitator of Sri Lanka’s food sector development, which has selected 20 firms for the Food Safety Certification programme and also targeting another 20 industries to gain HACCP or ISO 22000 international standard in food sector,” said Anura Siriwardene, Secretary, Industry and Commerce Ministry yesterday.

He was addressing the inauguration of the Hotel Hospitality & Food (HHF) 2012 Show, a professional international trade forum held for the second time in Sri Lanka. The event will be held still October 20 at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre.

“It is significant that the event is taking place at a time when we see strong growth in our tourism industry resulted by the development vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development. As a result, last year we recorded 855,000 tourist arrivals with a 30.8 % growth and $ 840 million revenue. From January to August this year, 693,772 tourist arrivals with an increase of 15.8 % in comparison to the same period of 2011 have been reported.

Interestingly, the strongest increase in arrivals was from both Eastern and Western Europe despite the economic downturn in the region. We are expecting more than one million tourists this year.” he said

HHF is supported by Sri Lanka’s leading hotel and tourism bodies and endorsed by the Economic Development Ministry, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Chefs Guild of Lanka, National Chamber of Exporters, Colombo Hoteliers Association and Negambo Hoteliers association.

HHF focuses on catering to the needs of the hotel and hospitality industry to upgrade the industry and promote it among other countries. HHF 2012 consists of many highlights, showcasing an inter-hotel culinary competition among chefs of leading hotels, hotel uniforms fashion shows and many industry related seminars and workshops aiming the progress of the industry.

Its visitor campaign will be directed at professionals engaged in the hotel and hospitality sector, food and beverage procurement and investors and operators of hotels in Sri Lanka and regional markets such as Maldives.