Partner Content.
2Firsts is an official media partner of InterTabac 2026.
Key Points
- Evolving Role: InterTabac 2026 is moving beyond product display, adding stronger functions in market insight, industry exchange and regulatory discussion.
- Industry Complexity: New nicotine categories, shifting regulation and more complex supply chains are reshaping how global trade fairs position themselves.
- Three-Show Structure: InterTabac will again be held alongside InterSupply and NUBIZ, covering traditional tobacco, NGPs and production supply chains.
- Global Planning Needs: Earlier ticket sales and a Tuesday-to-Thursday schedule respond to international visitors’ visa, travel and business-planning requirements.
- Industry Reference Point: As a major global tobacco and nicotine trade fair, InterTabac remains a key platform for tracking market change and future industry direction.
2Firsts
July 2, 2026
With about two and a half months before InterTabac 2026 opens in Dortmund, 2Firsts, an official media partner of InterTabac, spoke with Sabine Loos, Managing Director of Westfalenhallen Unternehmensgruppe. Loos said international trade fairs are taking on a broader role as the tobacco and nicotine industry faces new product categories, evolving regulation and more complex supply chains.
InterTabac 2026 will take place from Sept. 15 to 17, alongside InterSupply and NUBIZ.
“The global tobacco and nicotine industry is currently undergoing profound change,” Loos said. “New product categories are gaining in importance, regulatory requirements are evolving continuously, and international supply and value chains are becoming increasingly complex.”
Trade Fairs Move Beyond Product Display
Major tobacco trade fairs have long served as venues for product display, customer meetings and commercial relationships. That function remains central, but Messe Dortmund sees the role of international trade fairs widening as companies face more complex decisions across product categories, regulation and supply chains.
Companies are under growing pressure to identify market trends at an early stage and adapt their strategies accordingly, Loos said.
“Today, they are far more than mere presentation platforms,” she said. “Increasingly, they are becoming places for knowledge transfer, exchange and guidance in a dynamic market environment.”
For InterTabac, that means combining the international presentation of products, technologies and innovations with professional dialogue and networking. The event aims to offer industry players visibility, market information, new perspectives and direct access to decision-makers and experts from around the world.
“The opportunity to bring together the combined expertise of a global industry in one place over just a few days, to assess current developments and open up new business opportunities, represents benefits that only an international trade fair can offer in this form,” Loos said.
InterTabac, InterSupply and NUBIZ Link Tobacco, NGPs and Supply Chains
InterTabac 2026 will again be held alongside InterSupply and NUBIZ, placing traditional tobacco products, next-generation product categories and production technologies within the same trade fair environment.
Messe Dortmund’s role, Loos said, is to reflect “the full breadth of the global industry and its markets.”
“This includes the classic tobacco products that laid the foundation for InterTabac,” she said. “It also includes new product categories, as well as the production processes for tobacco and nicotine products.”
Many trade visitors are not focused on only one industry segment, according to Loos. They value a broader view across finished products, emerging categories and manufacturing processes.
On the scale of this year’s exhibitor participation, Sabine Loos said InterTabac will again fill 11 halls. By comparison, InterTabac and InterSupply welcomed around 800 exhibitors in 2025.
The organizer is also using signage, colour-coded guidance, printed visitor guides, the trade fair app, its website, social media channels, on-site maps and LED display boards to help visitors navigate the halls.
Conference Program Adds Regulatory and Market-Access Context
The 2026 conference program is still being finalized, but Messe Dortmund said key topics include international regulation, market and trend analysis, new product categories and tobacco harm reduction.
The program reflects growing corporate demand for guidance beyond product display, particularly as regulatory and market-entry requirements become more complex across regions.
“Today, a trade fair is so much more than a mere product showcase,” Loos said. “For trade visitors, it is about gaining a holistic view of their industry.”
Partner associations will send international experts to Dortmund. Organizations involved in the program include Euromonitor, Tamarind Intelligence, the Global Institute of Novel Nicotine, the European Cigar Manufacturers Association, the Cigar Association of America and the European Confederation of Tobacco Retailers.
The supporting program will also include focused side events and networking formats. These include the Cigar Blending Experience, which InterTabac has offered for many years, as well as the Cigar Culture Summit, PouchXchange and the InterTabac World Alternative Awards.
Cigars Remain a Core Pillar of the Dortmund Platform
While next-generation products continue to draw attention, cigars remain part of InterTabac’s core identity.
“The cigar industry and specialist cigar retail have been part of InterTabac from the very beginning, which is why their needs are of great importance to us,” Loos said.
Messe Dortmund has continued to develop the cigar segment through formats such as the Cigar Culture Summit, interactive workshops and international partnerships. Loos cited cooperation with the European Cigar Manufacturers Association as one example.
The 2026 edition follows the launch of the Cigar Culture Summit in 2025. Messe Dortmund has also announced plans for a Cigar Culture Summit South Africa, part of its wider development of cigar-related formats.
Messe Dortmund intends to keep tailoring cigar-related formats to specialist retailers, with content covering new brands, technical expertise and consumer trends.
Earlier Tickets and Weekday Schedule Reflect Business Planning Needs
InterTabac 2026 will take place from Sept. 15 to 17, running from Tuesday to Thursday. Compared with the Thursday-to-Saturday schedule more commonly used in previous editions, this year’s format places the fair more firmly within the working week. Messe Dortmund said the move responded to industry demand for more working days in the fair schedule. International participants are also expected to benefit from better flight and travel connections.
“For us, the advancement of a trade show is not only about introducing new events and content, but also about taking into account the needs of the participating companies,” Loos said.
Messe Dortmund has also opened ticket sales earlier this year. International visitors had told the organizer that early planning makes it significantly easier to attend InterTabac, especially when Schengen visa applications are required.
In 2025, around 50 percent of visitors came from abroad, with almost 30 percent of those international visitors travelling from non-European countries. Earlier ticketing helps visitors plan flights, hotels, budgets and supplier meetings in advance.
The InterTabac website now centralizes visitor information, including travel, ticketing, accommodation and visa documents for international guests.
Trade Fairs in a Changing Industry
As tobacco and nicotine products continue to evolve, international trade fairs are also adjusting their role within that change. They are no longer only venues for product display and business meetings, but also platforms where companies track market shifts, understand regulatory trends, build industry relationships and assess future direction.
At the same time, trade fairs can also help accelerate industry change. By bringing brands, manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, associations, experts and media into the same setting over a short period of time, platforms such as InterTabac can speed up information exchange, support cross-regional dialogue and create new connections between product categories, technologies and markets.
As one of the world’s largest trade fairs for the tobacco and nicotine industry, InterTabac remains an important reference point for global industry participants. For companies seeking to understand changes in traditional tobacco, next-generation products, supply chains, regulation and international markets, the 2026 Dortmund event will continue to offer a concentrated view of where the industry is moving.
As an official media partner of InterTabac, 2Firsts will continue to provide first-hand coverage before and during the show.
EXHIBITION AT A GLANCE
INTERTABAC - THE WORLD'S LARGEST TRADE FAIR FOR TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND SMOKING ACCESSORIES
At InterTabac, the world's largest trade fair for tobacco products and smoking accessories, trade visitors meet top decision-makers
from the retail, manufacturing, and service sectors. International market leaders and industry representatives from the fields of
cigars, cigarillos, cigarettes, pipes and smoking accessories, cigarette and pipe tobacco, RYO and MYO, fine-cut tobacco and
rolling papers, shop fittings, IT and POS systems, vending machines, hookahs and accessories are represented. Current issues
relating to the topics and challenges facing the industry are reflected in the conference program for the trade fair.
INTERSUPPLY – INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR THE PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO GOODS, E-CIGARETTES,
PIPES AND SHISHAS
The InterSupply trade fair takes place parallel to InterTabac and covers the entire process chain for the manufacture of tobacco
products, e-cigarettes, hookahs, and accessories. It is a meeting place for buyers, product developers, plant and operations
managers, packaging designers, engineers, and other players in the industry. International exhibitors showcase everything from
raw materials and innovative solutions for the manufacture and filling of products such as e-cigarettes, to weighing and measuring
products, packaging technologies and materials, software solutions for the control, optimization, and analysis of production
processes, or for documentation and traceability.
NUBIZ – INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF SMOKE-FREE SUBSTITUTES, PRODUCTS,
HEATED TOBACCO, VAPES AND ORAL PRODUCTS
NUBIZ is the new brand that, at Messe Dortmund, will be showcasing the next generation of products parallel to InterTabac –
from smoke-free alternatives to heated tobacco and e-vapes to oral products. The world of next-generation products has become
increasingly large and diverse in recent years. NUBIZ now offers trade visitors and exhibitors guidance in this growing market.
Event Organiser
Messe Dortmund GmbH
Partners
North Rhine Westphalia Retailers‘ Association, State Tobacco Association (conceptual sponsor)
German Federal Association of Tobacco Retailers (BTWE)
German Association of the Tobacco Industry and Next-
Generation Products (BVTE)
German Cigar Industry Association (BdZ) German Smoking
Tobacco Industry Association (VdR – Der Tabakmittelstand)
German Shisha Tobacco Association
Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA)
Alliance for Tobacco-Free Enjoyment (BfTG)
German E-Cigarette Retailers‘ Association (VdeH)
Cigar Association of America (CAA)
ProCigar – Association of Dominican Cigar Manufacturers
International Tobacco Growers´ Association (ITGA)
European Confederation of Tobacco Retailers (C.E.D.T.)
OctoberMultimedia
And many more: Overview
Relevant Links
INTERTABAC
INTERSUPPLY
NUBIZ
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