The 64th edition of Salone saw visitor numbers climb amid global instability, with UK attendees growing by more than 10%.
The event saw 316,342 visitors – an increase of 4.5% – from 167 different countries.
The number of UK visitors rose by 10.4%.
‘In a year marked by unstable markets and growing international complexity, the event has stood the test of the present with an offering combining industrial strength, design quality, cultural content and new business opportunities. The percentage of international trade visitors, which stood at 68% – consistent
with 2025 – went beyond mere attendance figures: it confirmed the Salone as a concrete internationalisation, networking and business development lever,’ says organisers.
‘Over six days, companies, buyers, investors, retailers, contractors, designers and the international media found the Salone to be a hub for high-value networking and content. With 1,900 brands from 32 countries, the image projected by the 2026 edition of the event was of a responsive and competitive industrial ecosystem.’
‘The 2026 edition has reaffirmed the strength of a system that, even in the most challenging of times, has chosen to move forward. It was a success not just in terms of the trade fair itself, but for the entire sector: a result of teamwork, a shared vision, and dialogue between different worlds that find a concrete synthesis here. The Salone does not merely bring the world of design together: it sets it in motion. It transforms attendance into relationships, content into opportunities, and complexity into direction. The international dimension, the growth of foreign markets and the work carried out throughout the year confirm the Salone’s role as a strategic infrastructure for supporting the sector in its internationalisation processes,’ says Maria Porro, Salone del Mobile.Milano president.
‘Salone Raritas; the masterplan presented by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten/OMA for Salone Contract 2027; the cultural programme and the participation of the new generations show that the future is not just built on numbers, but on our ability to experiment, change team, and take on the risk of innovation. As Rem Koolhaas reminded us in his lecture, designing means getting out of one’s comfort zone – a thought that the Salone adopts as its method – creating the right conditions for the sector to continue to dream up new possibilities. This edition has delivered an even more international Salone to the national economy and provided a concrete direction for the supply chain: combining industrial continuity with the capacity for innovation, leveraging a model rooted in local areas, difficult to replicate elsewhere and still competitive on international markets today.’
