The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association (FHTA) annual trade-show took place last week Thursday and Friday at the Sheraton Resort Convention Centre. HOTEC 2017 received a record 33 exhibitors. They filled 49 of the 50 booths prepared for the event that was deemed the largest tradeshow put together over the last 14 years.

Foot traffic to the event was further enhanced by industry events taking place in the Nadi area that same week and included Tourism Fiji’s Industry Day as well as the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism’s of­ficial launch of the Fijian Tourism Talanoa.

“While we didn’t have huge amounts of people coming through to take a look at what was on display at the trade-show, many of those people who did make the effort to attend were relevant industry mem­bers who used the opportunity to make connections and enquiries, placed orders or confirmed meet­ings for future orders and business opportunities” said chief executive officer FHTA, Fantasha Lockington.

She added that many of the ex­hibitors who made successful con­nections had already confirmed for next years event with some increas­ing their booth numbers to take ad­vantage of the opportunity.

Mrs Lockington also declared her appreciation to all the sponsors of the event – Fiji Water, Fiji Sun, Fiji Coffee, Sharmas’ Music Centre, Goodman Fielder and Punja’s Wines & Spirits who worked with the asso­ciation to make it the success it was.

She also reaffirmed the associa­tions deep gratitude to Fiji Cof­fee for coming on board to provide “coffee for gold coins” in support of FHTA’s “Water for Schools” charity project.

“We raised $400 from the gold coins that coffee drinkers donated towards the charity project and Fiji Coffee is boosting this to $1,000 which will kick-start our 2018 pro­gramme,” she said.

“Your gold coins could start a foun­tain” water for schools’ project aims to provide water tanks for rural community schools that are not in communities touched by tourism who have indicated to FHTA their need for water tanks.

“The intention next year is to have a final fund-raising event that will top up the existing kitty that has now been boosted by a further $1,000 so that these much-needed water tanks can be provided.

Next year, FHTA plans to con­tinue the provision of the interac­tive training and information pro­grammes that were well received by the industry during HOTEC 2017.

It has already commenced discus­sions with overseas based trainers who can provide their services for HOTEC 2018.