GITEX GLOBAL is set to reshape the global tech events calendar with an all-new 2026 edition that takes the world’s largest tech and AI show to a new dimension of innovation, business, and lifestyle experiences. After 45 years of firmly installing Dubai and the UAE on the global leadership map, GITEX makes its landmark move to Expo City Dubai, from 7-11 December in 2026, unveiling the world’s most fabulous TechCation, a next-generation fusion of innovation, discovery, and destination, with Dubai ranked the number one global destination in the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Destinations Awards 2024.
The shift to December is a strategic repositioning that places GITEX at the heart of Dubai’s vibrant tourism season; offering the international tech executives and investors in attendance a chance to explore the city’s distinctive lifestyle and cultural calendar, providing the perfect backdrop for more immersive and longer stays. Beyond the show floor, GITEX TechCation unfolds across the entire city – transforming Dubai into a live, connected convergence of business, technology, and lifestyle.
GITEX closely collaborates with the Dubai Department of Economy & Tourism, along with leading entities and stakeholders representing sports and wellness, hospitality, eco-tourism, and lifestyle sectors to create memorable staycation programmes.
Strategically aligned with D33 Agenda, Reinforcing Dubai as a World-Leading Tech Destination
GITEX TechCation is conceptualised in alignment with Dubai’s D33 economic agenda, which envisions the city as one of the world’s top three global hubs by 2033. D33 underlines Dubai’s attractiveness for tech executives, investors, and digital nomads to live and work in a conducive environment underpinned by world-class business, cultural and lifestyle infrastructure, in one of the world’s safest, most connected, and future-ready cities.
Supported by world-class infrastructure and lifestyle appeal, Dubai is consolidating its global competitiveness, fostering a knowledge-based economy, and positioning itself as the most enabling environment for international investment and talent. The city’s global rise is reflected in the top-ranked investment performance. In September 2025, the city ranked first globally in Greenfield FDI projects, attracting $11 billion in FDI inflows in the first half of the year (Dubai FDI Monitor). It has also emerged as a magnet for digital nomads, ranking No. 1 globally in the Savills Executive Nomad Index and No. 2 in the VisaGuide Digital Nomad Visa Index1.
By attracting this globally mobile talent pool, GITEX TechCation amplifies Dubai’s positioning as a city to live, create, and scale innovative ideas.
GITEX 5.0 in 2026 – Scaling the Next Decade of Frontier Growth
The 2026 edition represents a landmark progression in the show’s journey to spawn new tech movements across the world as GITEX 5.0. In 2026, the event moves to the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City – undergoing a US$2.7 billion expansion to become the largest purpose-build indoor events venue in the region. The expanded venue signals a new energy and the reinvention of GITEX to a new frontier show that aligns with the next era of global tech growth and the rising ambitions of AI economies worldwide.
The show opens on 7 December with the new outcomes-focused GITEX Scale Summit for global leaders, for a dedicated day of high-level strategic dialogues on the decisive trends, opportunities and policy frameworks influencing global AI economies.
From 8–11 December, the Expo presents the most frontier-pushing innovations across AI x 5.0 industries, from AI and quantum technologies to biosciences and advanced manufacturing, to spark collaborations across future critical sectors.
December 2026 in Dubai Expo City sees GITEX GLOBAL and Expand North Star come back together in one location, creating a single, integrated platform that amplifies the full spectrum of the global innovation ecosystem – from tech giants and policymakers to startups, investors, and visionary founders, further reinforcing the city’s role as the most influential meeting point for scale, capital, and ideas.
Together, GITEX 5.0 and TechCation mark a defining moment: a reimagined global platform where future technologies meet a city built to inspire, connect, and accelerate what comes next.
