276 international trade fairs are scheduled at Italian exhibition venues in 2026

Italian exhibition venues will host 276 international trade fairs in 2026, on figures the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation compiled from AEFI data for 2024 and 2025. The geography is heavily northern. Lombardy leads with 83 international events, ahead of Emilia-Romagna with 55 and Veneto with 27. Campania follows with 25, Tuscany with 23 and Lazio with 18, while Puglia counts 13, Piedmont 12 and Trentino-Alto Adige 11. Nine regions are named in the breakdown, spanning the industrial north, the centre and the south. By subject matter three clusters stand out: food, beverages and hospitality with 48 international fairs, textiles, apparel and fashion with 46, and sports, hobbies, entertainment and art with 44. A Milan-Bologna-Verona axis therefore carries the bulk of the internationally qualified calendar, and the densest sector clusters are consumer-facing rather than heavy industrial. The count covers fairs classified as international and staged at Italian exhibition venues, distinct from the wider national and regional programme.