FHS World 2026, the flagship edition of the Future Hospitality Summit, takes place at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai from 29 September to 1 October 2026. Organised by The Bench, the summit is one of the largest annual gatherings of hotel owners, operators, developers, lenders and investors in the Middle East and Africa.
The summit is built around investment. Its sessions bring hotel group chief executives together with the sovereign funds, family offices, developers and banks that finance new supply across the Gulf, Africa and wider emerging markets. Deal announcements, brand signings and management agreements are routinely timed for the event, and it doubles as a networking venue for chief development officers seeking pipeline.
The 2026 edition runs against a backdrop of continued hotel construction in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, growing interest in branded residences, and an operating environment in which owners are pressing brands on fees and on the returns from technology and loyalty programmes.
For boards and senior executives in hospitality, real estate and tourism, FHS World is the point in the calendar at which the regional industry sets out its investment intentions for the year ahead. Chief executives of hotel groups use it to signal expansion priorities, while owners and lenders use it to test which brands and markets are attracting capital. Executives in adjacent sectors, including aviation, construction and consumer finance, watch it for the same reason.
