A joint exhibition with around 460 companies from industries such as hotel, dining, tourism and construction opened on 29 July at the international exhibition center INTEX Osaka.
According to the organizer, this is the first large-scale exhibition since Japan’s declaration of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic was fully lifted in May.
Exhibitions have been continuously canceled since March due to the pandemic, so the Osaka Tourism Bureau established its own guidelines in June for the early resumption of such events. By including measures to reduce the risk of infection, such as venue ventilation, avoiding congestion and clarifying safety measures, it was decided by the sponsor, Japan Management Association (Tokyo), that it could go ahead.
The exhibition occupies the whole of INTEX Osaka with the “12th Kansai Hotel Restaurant Show” at its heart, where the dining and tourism industries gather. Around 460 companies have set up about 800 booths. The event will continue until 31 July.
The temperatures of visitors are taken at the entrance, and the number of people entering and leaving the hall is constantly monitored so that the number of people in the hall does not exceed the 5,000-person limit set by the government.
Masks are also mandatory in the venue, and measures have been taken to prevent crowding by widening the passage width to about 3 meters, almost double the conventional width.