EMITT measures itself in meetings, not footfall. At the 2026 edition 322 hosted tour operators from 63 countries worked through more than 3,500 scheduled appointments in three days. Your stand is an appointment venue with a destination wrapped around it, and the question that decides its shape is simple: how many conversations can it hold at the same time?
EMITT’s 30th edition runs 4–6 February 2027 at Istanbul Expo Center (İFM), Yeşilköy. This page is written for tourism boards, destinations and operators looking for an EMITT stand builder: pavilion structure, meeting capacity, performance space, approval, and prices.
Contents
ToggleEMITT at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4–6 February 2027 (30th edition) |
| Venue | Istanbul Expo Center (İFM), Yeşilköy, Istanbul |
| Frequency | Annual, early February |
| Exhibitors (2026) | 552, from more than 30 countries including Türkiye |
| Visitors (2026) | 19,849, of which 2,360 international; 109 countries represented |
| Hosted operators (2026) | 322 tour operators from 63 countries, 3,500+ scheduled meetings |
| Halls (2026) | 1 and 3 |
| Top foreign visitor markets | Egypt, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Greece, North Macedonia, Uzbekistan, Northern Cyprus |
One thing to correct if you exhibited here before 2026: EMITT changed venue. Editions through 2025 were at Tüyap in Büyükçekmece; 2026 was the first at Istanbul Expo Center in Yeşilköy, and 2027 stays there. A stand built to the old venue’s hall plan does not simply transfer.
Country pavilions are built by their owners, not by the fair
Country pavilions are the first category on EMITT’s own exhibitor profile, and at the 2026 edition exhibitors came from over thirty countries — Azerbaijan with a national pavilion, Northern Cyprus with a campaign stand, and national participations including Germany, the UAE, China, Japan, Italy, the Maldives, Egypt and the Seychelles. Turkish provinces exhibit through their governorships, municipalities, culture and tourism offices and development agencies.
What the organiser does not do is build them. There is no published pavilion package, no shell-scheme catalogue and no standard country-pavilion design — each tourism board, ministry or province appoints its own contractor. That is what this page is for.
A national pavilion here is usually a shared stand: a lead body with several sub-brands and co-exhibitors under one identity. Istanbul’s own municipal stand at the 2026 edition carried three brands and eight affiliated organisations, and shared space with a guides’ association. If that is your structure, the design problem is giving each occupant a visible counter without fragmenting the destination’s single brand message — which is a layout decision, not a graphics decision, and it has to be made before the 3D view.
Meeting capacity, counters and performance space
| Stand size | Simultaneous meetings | Layout |
|---|---|---|
| 9–12 m² | 1 | A branded counter and one table; a second operator waits standing |
| 20–30 m² | 2–3 | Destination wall, two tables and a materials counter |
| 40–60 m² | 4–5 | Several occupant counters, seated meeting zone, storage for brochures |
| 80 m²+ | 6 or more | Multi-brand pavilion with a semi-enclosed meeting area and an open presentation space |
Work backwards from your hosted-operator appointment list, not from the floor area you were offered. A tourism board with twenty-five booked meetings and three staff needs three seated places, not a bigger photograph of a coastline.
- Brochure logistics. Destination stands move a very large volume of printed material over three days. Build the stock in — under counters, behind the back wall — or the stand looks like a warehouse by the second afternoon.
- Cultural performance. Exhibitor stage shows, stand events and cultural performances are a normal format at this fair. If you plan one, it needs an area people can gather in without blocking the aisle, a power and sound position, and somewhere for performers to change. Decide at briefing, not later.
- Lighting a destination. Large backlit images are the dominant visual here, and a backlit panel next to a spot-lit counter is a colour-temperature clash. Keep one light character across the stand.
- Seating that works for two hours. Appointment-based meetings are longer than a trade-show chat. Chairs matter more than they do at a product fair.
Approval and the venue’s limits
If you have booked raw space, the design is reviewed before construction and you must name your stand constructor. Deadlines differ by fair — Automechanika Istanbul’s published terms require drawings two months ahead and state that unapproved designs cannot be built in the fairground. EMITT’s deadline comes with your exhibitor documentation, so ask for it as soon as your space is confirmed.
Istanbul Expo Center’s own figures apply to every stand in the halls: height capped at 5.8 m, floor load 2,250 kg/m², and a structural check required for any stand 4 m or over and for all two-storey stands. Destination pavilions cross the 4 m threshold more often than they expect, because a raised identity band or a suspended name is usually what makes a large pavilion readable from across the hall.
Public bodies have one additional constraint worth raising early: procurement rules often require the design, the material specification and the price to be fixed before approval, with no variation afterwards. We quote a fixed price against an approved design for exactly that reason, and we put the specification in writing at design stage so it survives a tender file.
Bringing material into Turkey
Display items, craft objects and equipment you will take home again normally travel under an ATA carnet as temporary admission. Brochures, maps, giveaway items, food and drink samples and anything handed to a visitor are consumed or stay in Turkey — they are not covered and need a full export declaration. Food and agricultural samples can carry their own import requirements. Confirm both with your freight forwarder in writing before shipping.
Prices
| Included in our price | Paid to the organiser |
|---|---|
| Design and 3D visuals, revised until approved | Floor space rental |
| Written material specification for your tender file | Electricity and water connections |
| Technical file and submission for approval | In-hall handling and empty-case storage |
| Manufacturing in our own workshop and pre-assembly | Compulsory service and catalogue fees |
| Transport, installation and dismantling | Static control fee, where one is charged |
| A technician on call during the fair |
Our band for a custom stand is 400 – 750 EUR per m², quoted as a fixed price in EUR against an approved design, so the figure you receive is the figure you pay. Island stands add 10–20%; double-decker structures add 40–60%, including the structural report and the longer installation.
Send your hall and stand number, size, number of open sides, how many occupants share the stand and how many simultaneous meetings you need, and you get a 3D design and a fixed quotation.
Timeline for February 2027
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| Occupant list, appointment estimate, performance decision | October 2026 |
| 3D design, counter layout, lighting plan | November 2026 |
| Specification issued for your tender or procurement file | November 2026 |
| Submission to the organiser | Per the deadline in your exhibitor documentation |
| Manufacturing, multilingual print, pre-assembly | December 2026 – January 2027 |
| Material shipping and customs | January 2027 — separate from the stand |
| Installation | Within the organiser’s setup window |
We work to 10–12 weeks for a custom stand, and recommend adding time where a public procurement process sits between the design and the order.
Frequently asked questions
When is EMITT 2027?
4–6 February 2027 at Istanbul Expo Center (İFM), Yeşilköy, Istanbul — the 30th edition. The 2026 edition had 552 exhibitors and 19,849 visitors with 109 countries represented, and hosted 322 tour operators from 63 countries.
Does the organiser build country pavilions?
No. Country pavilions are an exhibitor category, not a service — each tourism board, ministry, province or municipality appoints its own stand contractor. There is no published pavilion package or standard design.
Is EMITT still at Tüyap?
No. Editions through 2025 were at Tüyap in Büyükçekmece. The 2026 edition was the first at Istanbul Expo Center in Yeşilköy, and 2027 is there too.
Can several organisations share one stand?
Yes, and most destination pavilions do. The design question is giving each occupant a visible counter and a place to meet without breaking the destination’s single identity. Send us the occupant list at briefing and we lay the stand out around it.
We are a public body with a procurement process. Can you work to that?
Yes. We issue a written material and dimension specification at design stage and quote a fixed price against the approved design, so the figure and the scope can both go into a tender file without variation afterwards.
Creostand is an exhibition stand builder in Istanbul: we design, manufacture in our own workshop in Esenyurt — about 35 minutes from Istanbul Expo Center — and install on site. For other fairs and dates, see our Istanbul exhibition calendar.