IAAPA Expo returns to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando in the middle of November, with the exhibition floor open across four days from the seventeenth to the twentieth. The year is 2026. The education programme opens a day ahead of the show floor.
IAAPA Expo is the largest annual gathering of the global attractions industry, drawing theme park operators, water park and family entertainment centre owners, ride manufacturers, and the suppliers that sit behind them. Orlando is the natural host city, since the surrounding corridor contains the densest concentration of large scale attractions anywhere in the world and most of the major operators maintain offices within driving distance of the convention centre.
The commercial backdrop this year is capital intensity. Attractions operators are committing to multi year capital programmes at a point when borrowing costs have not returned to the levels that underwrote the previous investment cycle, and the industry's largest capital decisions now turn on throughput economics and per capita spending rather than on attendance growth alone. That pushes the conversation at a show like this towards operational technology, queue management and food and beverage yield, which are the levers operators can still pull without building anything.
The event occupies both the north and south buildings of the convention centre. IAAPA, the industry association that organises it, has added the newly opened west building to the footprint for this edition.
Executive Moves tracks senior appointments across the hospitality, leisure and attractions sectors.
