MILANO – With better-than-expected figures already being seen, things are certainly hotting up as HostMilano gears up for its fortieth edition, to be held at the Rho fairgrounds from Friday 20 to Tuesday 24 October. 1,824 firms have already confirmed their attendance, 1,092 of them Italian (59.9%) and 732 (40.1%) from 55 other countries.
Eight nations will be attending for the first time – Belarus, Egypt, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Ukraine – and Canada will be back after its last appearance at the 2011 edition.
The top ten of foreign countries is headed by Germany, Spain and France, followed by the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and Austria.
As for the breakdown of exhibitors by merchandise sector, the macro-sector Professional Catering and Bread, Pizza, Pasta accounts for 45.7%, and is the most widely represented, with 729 exhibitors taking part.
As for the other two macro-sectors, Coffee, Tea – Bars, Machinery, Coffee and Vending – Gelato Pastry accounts for 36.5% and Furnishings and Tableware for 17.8%.
“With an increase of 11.4% on the same date in 2015, the figures confirm the central role played by HostMilano on the international trade fair circuit,” says Simona Greco, head of Art, Fashion, Hospitality & Travel Exhibitions for Fiera Milano.
“Italian and foreign manufacturers see HostMilano as the perfect market place to present technological innovations and trends in the hospitality business, thanks also to the continual scouting activities Fiera Milano carries out to select the very best buyers: this year there will be 1,500 of them from every continent.”
The buyers come from today’s most interesting markets and are very carefully selected indeed. Their origins are: Europe (10%), the Mediterranean and South Africa (7%), the Middle East (15%), North America (23%), Central and South America (8%), Russia (18%), Asia and Oceania (19%).
So there will be plenty for the hundreds and thousands of professional visitors to ‘get their teeth into’, so to speak, with the vast of array of bread, pizza, coffee and cocktails, gourmet lunches, gelato and other desserts, furnishings and tableware. Everything they could wish for to improve the productivity of their businesses. To say nothing of all the many training sessions and detailed presentations of the latest trends and expected future developments.
