For the 2026–27 season, the trade shows most worth a UAE company’s time are Gulfood (15–19 March 2027, Dubai) for food and beverage, Arabian Travel Market (3–6 May 2027, Dubai) for travel, CES (6–9 January 2027, Las Vegas) for consumer tech, Hannover Messe (5–8 April 2027) for industrial technology, and the Canton Fair (October 2026, Guangzhou) if you’re sourcing products. Which one is right depends on whether you’re there to sell or to buy.
Our old version of this guide listed these shows without any dates, which is why it went stale so quickly. This one has confirmed dates, says who each show suits, and covers the preparation that UAE exhibitors tend to leave too late.
The calendar
These are the next editions of each show, as published by the organisers or their official partners.
| Show | Dates | Where | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canton Fair (140th, autumn) | 15–19 Oct, 23–27 Oct, 31 Oct–4 Nov 2026 | Guangzhou, China | Sourcing from manufacturers |
| CES | 6–9 January 2027 | Las Vegas, USA | Consumer tech, AI, devices |
| Gulfood | 15–19 March 2027 | Dubai World Trade Centre and Expo City Dubai | Food and beverage |
| Hannover Messe | 5–8 April 2027 | Hannover, Germany | Industrial, energy, automation |
| Arabian Travel Market | 3–6 May 2027 | Dubai World Trade Centre | Travel, hospitality, events |
Gulfood dates are via Austrade, the Canton Fair phases via Wego, Hannover Messe via hannover.de, and CES and ATM from their own sites.
If it’s your first show, start at home
Two of these five are in Dubai, which takes away most of what makes exhibiting hard the first time: shipping stock abroad, getting staff visas and finding a stand builder in a city you don’t know.
Gulfood is spread over two venues in 2027, Dubai World Trade Centre and Expo City Dubai. If you sell food, make sure your products are registered for sale in the UAE before the show. Finding out a product isn’t registered at the moment a buyer asks for it is an expensive way to learn. Our product registration team handles these applications.
ATM’s organiser reports more than 55,000 attendees and 2,800 exhibitors. We’d take headline attendance with a pinch of salt, since it counts every badge, including visitors who were never going to buy anything. For a small exhibitor the more useful number is how many hosted buyers and pre-booked meetings the organiser can point to. Ask for that before you pay for a stand.
Going abroad: CES and Hannover
CES suits UAE tech startups looking for international investors and distributors. Hannover Messe brings together around 3,000 exhibitors from engineering, digital industry and energy, according to the city of Hannover, which makes it a good fit for UAE manufacturers, energy service firms and industrial distributors.
Both take more preparation. Your team will need US or Schengen visas, and those can take weeks. Anything you exhibit has to be shipped out and brought back.
The Canton Fair is a buying trip
The Canton Fair turns up on nearly every list of shows for UAE companies, and it is enormous. But for most UAE businesses it’s where you go to find suppliers, not customers. Its export exhibition is made up mostly of Chinese manufacturers, and overseas visitors go as buyers with a badge they’ve applied for in advance.
So if your Dubai trading company imports consumer goods, electronics or building materials, the autumn 2026 phases are worth planning a trip around (electronics and machinery first, then home and construction products, then fashion, food and leisure). If you’re hoping to sell your own products there, you’ll probably be disappointed.
Getting ready, in the right order
Most exhibitors begin with the stand design. The things that cause delays come before that.
- Check that your licence covers what you’ll be selling abroad. Trading and export activities need to be on it, and free zones such as DMCC and RAKEZ offer trading licences built for this.
- Register any products that need UAE approval, especially food, cosmetics and health products.
- Get an ATA Carnet from the Dubai Chamber if you’re taking samples or equipment to a show abroad and bringing them home. It lets goods enter many countries temporarily without paying duty.
- Arrange certificates of origin for anything you’ll sell. The Dubai Chamber issued 627,908 of them in the first nine months of 2025, up 9% on the year before (Mena Startup Digest, November 2025), so it’s a routine process, but it still needs time.
- Start the visa applications once your stand is confirmed.
Of all these, the carnet is the step people forget most easily. Without one, your exhibition goods can be charged import duty at the destination and then again when they come back. For an exhibitor bringing heavy equipment, that can cost more than the stand.
Written by Smart Zone Editorial Team
We help trading and export companies set up with the right activities, product registrations and documents before they take their first stand, whether that’s in Dubai or abroad.
For exporters, visit our Free Zone Company Formation page.
