Suppliers cash in on quality at the Hotel Show

As the Middle East's premier hotel supplies exhibition moved to its conclusion tonight (Wednesday) at Airport Expo Dubai, many of the 199 exhibitors from 24 countries were reporting immediate business success while others looked forward to completing lucrative new deals in the weeks and months ahead.

The signs are particularly healthy for furniture suppliers among the group of eight Spanish manufacturers who joined forces in Dubai for the first time this week to target the region's lucrative hospitality market.

While Spanish exports showed only minor overall growth in 2002 over 2001, exports to the UAE grew by 34% to 504 million Euros and by 57.4% to 49.9 million Euros for Qatar during the year. And in the first two months of this year, the UAE (97.1 million Euros) was the leading Middle East recipient of Spanish exports, followed by Saudi Arabia (87.1 million Euros) and Iran (63.8 million Euros),

The figures were released by the Spanish Embassy's Economic and Commercial Office in Dubai which lent its support to the Spanish presence at The Hotel Show. Commercial head Jose Luis Perez Sanchez said: "There are a great number of new hotel projects under way in the Middle East, and there is an awful lot of potential here for Spanish companies, particularly furniture manufacturers. The UAE is totally safe, and all we need is stability across the region to realise that potential."

The exhibition, organised by event management and marketing specialists, Streamline Marketing,
attracted trade visitors from the Middle East, Europe, the sub-Continent and other overseas regions.

"These included hotel owners, developers and leading operators, and exhibitors have been telling us all week that the overall quality of visitors is very high", said Joanne Evans, director of Streamline Marketing.

Dubai-based International Aeradio (Emirates) LLC (IAL) announced at The Hotel Show today that it had secured a Dhs225,000 contract to supply VingCard door locks for the 250-room Traders Hotel Dubai, managed by the Shangri-La chain and scheduled to open in Deira at the end of August.

The Hotel Show has provided an ideal launch pad for satellite images of Earth turned into a stunning new art form by Briton Stuart Black and which could now take up space on hotel walls, as well as in homes, across the Middle East.

His Nature's Canvas collection was created from digital data acquired by satellites observing Earth from 705km away. The limited edition prints offer a contemporary view of our planet, with subjects including The Empty Quarter and Jabal Tuwayq in Saudi Arabia, the Sahara Desert, the Nile at Luxor in Egypt, and the Wahiba Sands in Oman.

Black, who set up his company, Earth from Space, 18 months ago, said: "The Hotel Show has a very good reputation, but I've still been surprised by the amount of interest. The initial enquiries I've had here could lead to about $75,000 worth of business, and there's a tremendous amount of potential in the Middle East."

It's been a similar story for another British company, Corporate Insignia, which has experienced major hotel interest in its range of quality staff name badges, signs and promotional items. Director Jim Kent, who used up all his business cards on the first day, said: "I've been pleasantly surprised by the number and quality of visitors. This is a very compact show and attracts the right kind of people. The Middle East is a huge market, and after this week I'm hopeful of winning a good chunk of it. I've had so many enquiries that I'll have to bring someone here to help me next year."

British-based A.Ronai Eastern, Middle East agents for Simon Jersey Uniforms, won major new business success from The Hotel Show last year, and spokesman Gavin Dodd said the company now looks forward to more significant orders after another busy week in Dubai.

"We did some fantastic business here last year, including supplying uniforms for Le Meridien Dubai, and it could be even better this time," he said.

Bringing under its umbrella 200 companies in areas such as architecture, lighting and sanitary equipment, Germany-based Usw-World.com also aims to cash in on its debut at The Hotel Show, which was held under the patronage of H.H.General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, UAE Minister of Defence, and chairman of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.

"The Gulf Region offers vast opportunities, since the number of luxury hotel properties here is constantly on the rise and they all demand tailor-made design solutions," said director Ulrich Jahn. "It's too early to judge how profitable this week has been, but we have made many promising contacts and in the following months we will be coordinating plans and arrangements with them."

Dometic AB, the world's largest producer of mini-bars, scored a big show success with its new range of Windows based automatic miniBars. "We've just installed them at the newly-opened Grand Hyatt in Dubai, and other hotel chains have now expressed a lot of interest," said regional manager Christofer Lund. "The show has put us in direct contact with the right kind of people."