Expo Hotels and Restaurants (EXPHORE)

Event type: Hospitality, Foodservice, Hotel Operations, Restaurant Supplies, Commercial Kitchen Equipment, Guest Experience, Tourism Services

Best use case: B2B attendee and buyer research for hospitality suppliers, restaurant product vendors, hotel technology providers, kitchen equipment brands, food & beverage manufacturers, and service companies targeting decision-makers in the hotel and restaurant ecosystem.

Important note before final buyer targeting: Please share your client’s website so I can review the product, understand the offer, and narrow the best buyer accounts, job titles, and industry filters based on the exact customer profile you want to sell attendee lists to.

Event overview

Expo Hotels and Restaurants (EXPHORE) is a hospitality and foodservice trade event designed for companies and professionals serving hotels, restaurants, cafés, catering operations, institutional kitchens, tourism-related businesses, and guest experience service providers. This event is usually valuable for vendors that sell into the hospitality supply chain rather than for consumer brands. The strongest buyer opportunity comes from targeting procurement leaders, hotel operators, restaurant owners, purchasing teams, executive chefs, F&B directors, operations managers, and technology decision-makers who influence purchasing for equipment, consumables, software, uniforms, hygiene products, furnishings, and service contracts.

This is a highly commercial event because hospitality buyers typically attend with an immediate business need: replacing equipment, sourcing new suppliers, reviewing operational tools, improving foodservice efficiency, reducing cost, upgrading guest experience, or discovering new brands. That makes EXPHORE a strong environment for attendee-list monetization when the list is filtered correctly toward actual buying roles.

1️⃣ Who attends: buyers / attendees

The attendee mix is centered around hospitality and foodservice professionals. The most valuable contacts are usually not general visitors, but people who influence or directly control purchasing decisions for hotels, restaurants, catering businesses, and related service operations.

Main attendee groups:

• Hotel owners, general managers, operations directors, and purchasing managers
• Restaurant owners, multi-unit operators, franchisees, and procurement teams
• Executive chefs, culinary directors, and kitchen managers
• Food and beverage directors, banquet managers, and catering managers
• Housekeeping managers, facility managers, and maintenance teams
• Hospitality procurement and supply-chain professionals
• Tourism and travel service providers
• Suppliers and distributors of hospitality products and services
• Technology buyers for POS, booking, CRM, and guest engagement systems

Best buyer personas: Director of Procurement, Purchasing Manager, Hotel GM, F&B Manager, Operations Manager, Executive Chef, Restaurant Director, Supply Chain Manager, Hospitality Technology Manager, Regional Operations Director.

2️⃣ Where the show is happening + attendee geographic origin

Show location: EXPHORE is typically hosted in Costa Rica, with strong regional visibility in Latin America. The exact venue and city should be confirmed for the specific edition you are targeting.

Attendee geographic origin: The audience is usually a mix of local, national, and regional Latin American attendees, with the highest concentration coming from the host country and nearby Central American and Caribbean markets. In many hospitality events like this, regional distributors and buyers also travel in from neighboring countries to source products and compare suppliers.

Best geographic targeting:

• Local buyers from the host city and surrounding hospitality hubs
• National hotel chains, restaurant groups, and distributors
• Regional Latin American hospitality operators and purchasing teams
• International brands with local channel partners or regional expansion plans

3️⃣ Audience reach: local / national / global

Reach type: Primarily national and regional, with selective global supplier participation.

EXPHORE is not usually a mass global mega-show, but it can still be highly valuable because hospitality purchasing decisions often happen at the local and regional level. For supplier businesses, that is often more useful than a broad global audience with no purchase intent.

Reach assessment:

• Local: Strong
• National: Strong
• Regional Latin America: Strong
• Global: Moderate, mostly through exhibitors, brands, and distributors

4️⃣ Sample buyer company names + websites

Below is a sample buyer list that represents the kind of companies likely to be strong fits for hospitality, restaurant, foodservice, hotel, and guest-experience products. These are buyer-side targets, not random attendees.

Top 5 sample buyer accounts to prioritize first: Marriott International, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Compass Group, Sysco.

5️⃣ Job profiles, industries & event type

For attendee-list selling, the best results come from targeting decision-makers who can actually buy or influence purchases. For EXPHORE, the strongest segment is hospitality operations and foodservice procurement.

Best job profiles to target:

• Procurement Manager
• Purchasing Director
• Hotel General Manager
• Regional Operations Director
• Restaurant Owner / Franchise Owner
• Executive Chef
• F&B Director
• Operations Manager
• Supply Chain Manager
• Category Manager
• Hospitality Technology Manager
• Housekeeping Director
• Facility Manager
• Culinary Director
• Business Development Manager for hospitality suppliers

Best industry filters to use:

• Hospitality
• Leisure, Travel & Tourism
• Restaurants
• Food & Beverages
• Food Production
• Import & Export
• Logistics & Supply Chain
• Retail
• Consumer Goods
• Facilities Services
• Events Services
• Marketing & Advertising for hospitality agencies
• Information Technology & Services for hotel software vendors
• Management Consulting for hospitality advisory firms

Event type focus: B2B expo, supplier showcase, procurement network, hospitality sourcing event, restaurant and hotel innovation marketplace, commercial buying environment.

6️⃣ Estimated attendance / expected footfall

Estimated attendance: Medium to strong footfall, depending on the edition and city. A realistic buyer research assumption is that the event draws a concentrated regional audience rather than a huge mass-market crowd.

Expected footfall logic:

• Strong concentration of hospitality operators and suppliers
• Buyer quality is usually more important than raw crowd size
• Attendee value increases if the event includes procurement meetings, product demos, or curated networking
• The strongest leads are often hotel chains, restaurant groups, distributors, and service providers

If you want, I can also help you estimate footfall in a more precise way after you share the specific edition year, venue, and official event page.

7️⃣ Key focus areas & buyer engagement

EXPHORE typically appeals to buyers who are looking for practical, operationally useful products and services. These events work best when the pitch is built around supply efficiency, revenue improvement, guest satisfaction, and vendor comparison.

Likely focus areas:

• Hotel and restaurant procurement
• Commercial kitchen equipment and supplies
• Tableware, linens, furniture, and décor
• Cleaning, sanitation, and hygiene solutions
• Food and beverage sourcing
• Packaging and disposables
• Hospitality technology and software
• Guest experience and service enhancement
• Uniforms, safety gear, and facility solutions
• Tourism services and hospitality consulting

Buyer engagement approach: The best engagement strategy is to position the attendee list as a hospitality decision-maker database, not just a generic event list. Buyers want prospects such as hotel GMs, procurement teams, restaurant owners, chefs, and operators who influence purchasing across recurring supplier categories.

High-value messaging example:

“We can help you reach hotel procurement leaders, restaurant operators, executive chefs, purchasing managers, foodservice distributors, and hospitality technology buyers attending EXPHORE.”

8️⃣ Client product fit review request

To recommend the best buyers, I need to review your client’s website first. The right audience for this event changes a lot depending on what the client sells.

Examples of how targeting changes by product:

• If the client sells hotel technology: target hotel GMs, IT managers, procurement directors, and operations leaders.
• If the client sells kitchen equipment: target executive chefs, kitchen managers, restaurant owners, and F&B directors.
• If the client sells cleaning or hygiene products: target housekeeping heads, facility managers, and purchasing teams.
• If the client sells food and beverage products: target distributors, restaurant owners, chefs, and hotel F&B leaders.
• If the client sells staffing or recruiting services: target HR managers, operations directors, and hospitality employers.
• If the client sells uniforms, linens, or furniture: target procurement teams, hotel operators, and multi-location restaurant brands.

Please send the client website, and I can return a refined buyer recommendation with the best industries, job titles, and company targets for your attendee-list campaign.

9️⃣ Suggested industries from the industry list provided

For this event, the most relevant industries from your industry list are:

• Hospitality
• Restaurants
• Food & Beverages
• Food Production
• Consumer Goods
• Retail
• Logistics & Supply Chain
• Import & Export
• Facilities Services
• Information Technology & Services
• Leisure, Travel & Tourism
• Management Consulting
• Events Services
• Wholesale

Additional practical targeting advice: When you search by industry, do not rely only on broad hospitality labels. Many of the best buyers will sit in operations, procurement, supply chain, franchise management, and hospitality technology companies that may be tagged under adjacent industries such as consumer goods, retail, logistics, or information technology.

Final assessment

EXPHORE is a strong event for attendee-list sales if your client sells into hotels, restaurants, commercial kitchens, hospitality operations, foodservice distribution, or guest experience solutions. The event is especially useful because hospitality buyers usually have active purchasing cycles and a direct interest in vendor discovery.

Best buyer segments to focus on:

• Hotel procurement and operations leaders
• Restaurant owners and franchise operators
• Executive chefs and kitchen managers
• Foodservice distributors and supply-chain teams
• Hospitality technology buyers
• Housekeeping and facilities decision-makers

Overall B2B attendee-list potential: 8/10

This is a high-quality niche event with strong commercial intent. The best results will come from filtering carefully toward buyers, operators, procurement leaders, and hospitality decision-makers rather than generic attendees.

Next step: Send your client’s website, and I will review it and give you the best buyers, titles, industries, and company targets specifically matched to that product.