Stevette Santiago, left, and Mabel Hunkin of Y. Hata & Co. set up a display on Tuesday at the Hotel & Restaurant Expo at the Blaisdell Center exhibition hall. The event, which is open only to trade personnel, features 340 exhibits by nearly 250 vendors.
Photo by Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Hotel & Restaurant Expo takes over the Blaisdell Center exhibition hall through Thursday, with 340 booths operated by nearly 250 vendors to the accommodations and food service industries.

"What makes this an ideal marriage is that many exhibitors had to show in two shows or pick up one or the other," said Kathy Masunaga, executive director of the Restaurant Association.

The two local industries got together in a joint show for the first time last year, with a jammed exhibition at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.

It attracted so much attention that even this year's much bigger show ended up with a waiting list of would-be exhibitors, said Kanter, head of Douglas Trade Shows Management, which manages the show for the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Hotel Association. Fifty businesses have signed up already for next year's show, he added.

Masunaga said the combined show gives the association's allied members - those who don't operate food service establishments but do sell to them - a chance to show off their latest products and services to their clients, the association members.

"If this really opens up we're hoping we can expand it to the Pacific Rim and go into the convention center," which will open in 1998, Masunaga said.

The show is open only to trade personnel who can produce a business identification card at the door. For them, it's free. It is open to professionals from all over the hospitality and food service industries, including catering, food concessions, building managers, clubs, schools, the military, retail stores, restaurants and other food service operations.

On the accommodations side, the show expects to attract representatives of not just hotels but other forms of accommodations, including hospitals, retirement homes and even cruise ships.

"This is the largest exposition trade show serving the hospitality industry," said Kanter.

Exhibits range from amenities, appliances, baked goods and bathrobes to towels, umbrellas, wallpapers, waste management, wines and more.

Murray Towill, executive director of the Hawaii Hotel Association, said the show in Waikiki last year sold out. "This show sold out with a substantial waiting list. The veterans obviously believe that it's in their best interests to be there," he said.

What makes it tick, he said, is that the hotel people who come also see what's new in restaurants and vice versa and there are many services and products of interest to both.

"There are a few hospitals, building managers and so on who might not have come to either the hotel show or the restaurant show," he said. "Hospitals buy food service just as hotels do."

One exhibitor is Y. Hata & Co., a food wholesaler which has three booths. Stevette Santiago, director of human resources, said Hata runs its own shows during the year and in the past had one booth at the trade shows.

"If we were to do our own show, like we've done the past four years, we wouldn't get anything like the traffic we're getting here," she said.

Hata continues to run its own shows where it can get into more specialized demonstrations and sampling. It treats this week's show as on opportunity to give an overall glimpse of what the company offers, Santiago said.