By GEOFFREY BEW
\nMANAMA: Businessmen have criticised the organisation of Bahrain’s first furniture contract manufacturing exhibition, which they say was not properly marketed.<\/p>\n
The three-day International Hospitality Furniture Expo (IHFEX) ended at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) yesterday.
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\nIndustry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro opened the event on Monday, saying he hoped it would be the catalyst to similar exhibitions in the future, but exhibitors said hardly anyone turned up and they went home disappointed.<\/p>\n
Manama-based company O P Design managing director Sayed Mahmood Khalaf said he would be reluctant to take part in the event if it was repeated next year.<\/p>\n
“We were disappointed with the number of visitors, some came but we were expecting a lot more,” he said.<\/p>\n
“On the first day they were three or four people and after 1.30pm nobody was there.<\/p>\n
“It was not properly advertised and there was something wrong, I am sure.<\/p>\n
“I believe it was the timing of the exhibition because the schools have started to open again.<\/p>\n
“This is the first time I have had a stand in my life and I have been in business for 27 years.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to let everybody know about my company and I spent a lot of money, maybe around BD10,000.”<\/p>\n
Indonesia-based Classique Furnishing company managing director Chesley Masias said the visit to Bahrain had not been a complete disaster, but admitted officials were disappointed.<\/p>\n
“We have established our contacts and we have made a few deals but the volume of visitors was not as we expected,” he told the GDN.<\/p>\n
“Some people had not heard about it so I think there was a need for more advertising.”<\/p>\n
Mr Masias said he would be willing to return if the event was repeated, but only if serious changes were made.<\/p>\n
“I think the organisers will have to extend the courtesy of better facilities and preparation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Another Indonesian exhibitor, who declined to be named, said he expected a lot more from the event.<\/p>\n
“It was not as professional as it should have been and I do not think the marketing was that good,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have no business presence in the Middle East so it was worth it for us, but I think for someone who has business here it would not have been worth exhibiting.”<\/p>\n
However, officials from the Singapore-based company MP Congress, which jointly organised the exhibition with the Exhibitions and International Furniture Fair Singapore (IFFS), denied the event had been a failure.<\/p>\n
“I agree the traffic was low, particularly on the first day, but it picked up on the second and third day and they sold everything,” said the firm’s Middle East general manager Tony Chan.<\/p>\n
“We could have advertised more and brought in the public but I doubt exhibitors would be keen on people buying individual pieces of furniture.<\/p>\n
“It is a very niche and targeted show and we brought in very high profile buyers, vice-presidents and presidents, hotel owners and general managers, architects and interior designers.<\/p>\n
“We hosted them here, paying for their accommodation and these are the real decision makers.<\/p>\n
“You will not see the on-site signing of contracts and exhibitors know not to expect this.<\/p>\n
“I agree it was a bit slow but come the second, third and fourth show there will be word of mouth and more interest drawn from it.”<\/p>\n
Dr Fakhro said at the opening of the event that Bahrain planned to build new exhibition venues as the number of events related to the booming hospitality and tourism industry has more than tripled in the last year.<\/p>\n
The event featured 22 leading furniture makers and interior fit-out specialists from Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Lebanon.<\/p>\n
They were targeting the fit-out of hotels, service apartments, commercial projects, cruise liners and other hospitality projects.<\/p>\n
Among the products being showcased were furniture pieces, accessories, bedding and bathroom amenities, closets, woodworks, fabrics, carpets, tile and flooring coverings, lightings and fixtures. geoff@gdn.com.bh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By GEOFFREY BEW MANAMA: Businessmen have criticised the organisation of Bahrain’s first furniture contract manufacturing exhibition, which they say was not properly marketed. The three-day International Hospitality Furniture Expo (IHFEX) ended at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-indonesia-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}