High-end hotels and bars of the future take center stage with the Luxury Hotel Food Experience and the Innovation Bar: direct dialogue with premium hospitality players.

Constant growth and international scope: Sigep World is not just a B2B fair. It is the meeting point for those who do business, anticipate trends and build the future of foodservice excellence. The path towards Sigep World 2026 – The World Expo for Foodservice Excellence by Italian Exhibition Group opens: the international event with the best of gelato, pastry, chocolate, coffee, bakery and pizza will return to Rimini Fiera from 16 to 20 January with a new opening agenda, from Friday to Tuesday. In 2025, the fair hosted 1,300 exhibiting brands from 33 countries in 30 pavilions, welcoming an audience of professional operators from 160 nations.

For 2026, the internationalization strategy is further strengthened, with a focus on engaging large global chains and high-potential buyers. The 2026 edition is aiming straight for internationalization with a strategy designed to attract the major decision makers in the sector. It starts in Madrid where on 6 November, the Italian Embassy will host the Sigep World roadshow aimed at the Spanish foodservice business community. In the meantime, to support the growing international opening, new direct air connections to Rimini have been introduced, from Munich and Spain. The protagonist will then be India, Guest Country of the 2026 edition: a qualified delegation of buyers, media and institutional representatives will take part in the event, helping to develop strategic relationships with the entire exhibition chain.

Gelato becomes the protagonist of a strategic project: Gelato Meets Chains. Before the fair, selected buyers will participate in webinars and digital meetings to learn about the opportunities of gelato in modern foodservice. A strategic guide, edited with the Uif and Acomag associations, will illustrate the economic, operational and image advantages of introducing gelato into menus. At the fair, there will also be space for business matchmaking, with speed dates and one-to-one meetings. All supported by the digital campaign “What is Gelato?”, which aims to connect the Italian artisanal gelato supply chain with large international groups in the restaurant, hotel and retail chains.

After the debut of the pizza supply chain at Sigep World 2025, the sector will return to center stage in the 2026 edition with Pizza (R)evolution, a project capable of telling new synergies between ingredients, technologies and consumption formats.

Among the most stimulating innovations of the 2026 edition, a special attention to the world of high-end hôtellerie and the bar of the future stands out. This is how the Luxury Hotel Food Experience was born, a project that showcases the excellence of tableware, an experience designed to create a direct dialogue with top buyers from the most important international hotel chains. Next door, the Innovation Bar comes to life: an immersive space that tells the story of the evolution of the global coffee shop, including specialty coffee, artificial intelligence, robotic solutions and new languages of taste.

High-impact content, strategic vision and connections: with Sigep Vision and the “Lorenzo Cagnoni” Innovation Award, an international area dedicated to start-ups and talks with the main protagonists of the global scene, Sigep World establishes itself as the true industry authority for those who operate and invest in excellent foodservice.

Sigep World 2026 brings back two events that attract the attention of the international business community: the Gelato World Cup, the only competition in the world that pits the best master gelato makers against each other, and the Juniores Pastry World Cup, where promising young pastry chefs compete in a competition that combines training, passion and global visibility.