MILAN — Amid trying economic times, Italy‘s leading design trade show Salone del Mobile.Milano continues to promote Italian businesses in markets with growth potential.

Salone del Mobile.Milano’s president Maria Porro said Monday that the trade show’s organizers will stage the fair’s first event in Riyadh, serving as a preview to a larger, more structured trade show that will take place there in 2026.

The three-day event will showcase the collections of 35 Italian furniture, lighting, surfaces and accessories brands and will take place Nov. 26 to Nov. 28 at the heart of Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District, Porro said at a press conference in Milan. Companies include the biggest names in luxury design: Molteni&C, Cassina, Porro, Poliform, Minotti, Giorgetti, Visionnaire and Artemide among them.

“Today, [Saudi Arabia] presents an untapped potential for absolute growth. This is precisely why we are here: to transform this potential into concrete projects, long-lasting relationships, and added value for the entire supply chain,” said Porro, adding that the Riyadh event is the culmination of the organization’s global road trip. Over the last year, Salone del Mobile.Milano organizers have staged events in New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well as at the Osaka Expo.

Entitled, “Red in Progress: Salone del Mobile.Milano meets Riyadh,” the overall aim of the event is to build a bridge between Italian furniture companies and Saudi Arabia’s design community.

“‘Red in progress. Salone del Mobile.Milano meets Riyadh’ is the first step toward 2026, when the city will host a fully fledged Salone del Mobile, broader in scope, richer in content and at the service of Saudi Arabia’s design ecosystem,” Porro said.

In January, Salone del Mobile.Milano signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Arabian Architecture and Culture Commission to promote a dialogue between Italy and Saudi Arabia in the worlds of design and architecture.

Saudi Arabia’s Market Boom

Across the board, Italian design leaders are eager to take a slice of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing growth story, especially as its key markets like the U.S. and China battle inflation, trade woes and the rising cost of living and real estate. Propelled by the desert nation’s economic diversification plan, Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is expected to attract 150 million visitors by 2030, creating demand for 362,000 new hotel rooms, according to Saudi Arabia’s statistics bureau.

Leasable retail space is expected to grow to 106.6 million square feet as high-end office rental rates climb 8.7 percent year-on-year, according to commercial real estate trends and insights firm JLL Research.

Saudi Arabia’s furniture, fixtures and equipment market was valued at approximately 6.11 billion euros in 2024 and is expected to reach 8.06 billion euros by 2030, according to research by TechSci Research and Mordor Intelligence.

Salone del Mobile.Milano said Saudi Arabia’s growth presents a great opportunity. In 2024, Italy’s export of wood-furniture products to Saudi Arabia reached 288.3 million euros, up 16.9 percent from 2023 and 19 percent from 2022, according to a study by Italy’s wood supply chain consortium FederlegnoArredo. Saudi Arabia is the second-largest single market in the Middle East and North Africa region for Italian furniture exports. Italian-made furniture represents a 36 percent share of the high-end market, according to UN Comtrade Data.

A Testament to Design

Italy’s design community will also be involved in the inaugural event. The installation will be designed by the international architecture studio Giò Forma, which envisaged a landscape of modular scaffolding, covered with a semi-transparent red fabric. Famed Italian architect Piero Lissoni’s firm Lissoni & Partners will design the business lounge, a space to host meetings and presentations with key Saudi decision-makers. The space will feature intimate seating areas defined by curved walls resembling graphic lines, columns wrapped in backlit pleated fabric serving as landmarks, and rugs, furnishings, and touches of greenery creating a comfortable retreat, while a large, illuminated wall will tell the story and values of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The organization’s editorial and cultural events director Annalisa Rosso will curate a cultural program, bringing together perspectives from Italy and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Ministry of Culture space will showcase the work of local designers in collaboration with the Kingdom’s leading universities. The Architecture and Design Commission at the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture will host “Designed in Saudi,” an initiative conceived by the commission to nurture the local ecosystem.

Saudi Arabia’s Design Hub Potential

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has been investing in propelling local creativity through the nation’s Arts and Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for the ancient city of Alula and the Alula Design Residency. Together, they play a key role in fostering cross-cultural exchange between global design pillars and local Saudi Arabian makers and talents. Within this arena, Madrasat Addeera, an Alula-based school, was set up to safeguard and perpetuate traditional crafts. In Milan in 2024, they showed the designs for Madrasat Addeera Editions, the fruit of the creative dialogue between the local design community in Alula and a range of well-known Saudi and international designers and artisans.

Salone del Mobile.Milan is not the first design event to take advantage of Saudi Arabia’s growing potential. In May, Downtown Design Dubai, the Middle East‘s leading contemporary design fair since 2012, cut the ribbon on Downtown Design Riyadh, becoming Saudi Arabia’s very first design trade show. The four-day fair at the JAX District brought the potential of local talent to the fore. The fair also featured well-known international brands like Venetian glassmaker Venini, French crystal firm Saint-Louis and luxury furniture maker Natuzzi.