At the Palais des Festivals, the world of golf travel does its business until Thursday

After MIPCOM, the Palais des Festivals changes register without changing pace. From Monday until Thursday it hosts the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), the golf tourism trade show organised by the RX group. According to the Palais official ticketing page, Cannes hosts the show for the first time since its 20th edition in 2017, and this 2026 edition brings together 500 exhibitors, 250 invited buyers and more than 1,000 trade visitors, representing more than 80 countries. Access is by accreditation, built around pre-scheduled business appointments between destinations, resorts, courses, travel agencies and specialist tour operators.

The organiser presents this edition, the show’s 28th, as four days of appointments, networking and content for the global golf travel community, an event that moves to a different destination each year. In its own count, it announces pre-scheduled appointments between more than 300 golf tourism suppliers and more than 300 pre-qualified buyers, categories that do not exactly match those of the Palais listing: the two readings complement each other without merging, one counting the participants in the appointments, the other all the exhibitors, invited buyers and visitors expected at the Palais.

IGTM Discovery, the show’s new strand

The new feature of 2026 is called IGTM Discovery. The organiser presents it as the official expansion of the show: beyond golf tourism alone, it targets the wider golf industry and aims to connect suppliers with golf facility decision makers. It comes with a conference programme, also new this year, running across the three days of the show and open to attendees of both events. It opens this Tuesday at 9.55 am with a session by Mark Skinner, Head of Business and Management at The PGA, on the continuing professional development of golf professionals.

The rest of the programme shows the subjects running through the sector: a discussion on sustainability across courses and their operations, this Tuesday afternoon, with Alejandro Reyes, Director of Agronomy at Turfgrass Agronomy Services, and Jim Croxton, chief executive of BIGGA; a session by Reyes on Wednesday on the future of course agronomy, between water scarcity and climate pressures; and, on Thursday, a debate on the commercial reality of women’s golf, followed by a conversation on running a multi-revenue golf facility. The show also highlights its newcomers: Camiral, which will host the Ryder Cup in 2031, Details, which represents golf courses and hotels across Portugal, VisitAberdeenshire and the Caribbean Puntacana Resort, first time exhibitors, along with Cyprus and the Dominican Republic, represented for the first time, and emerging destinations such as Vietnam, China and Mauritius.

A golf day on three Riviera courses

The week opened with the Golf Day, the day of play reserved for attendees booked in advance, which Cannes hosts for the second consecutive year according to the organiser. Three courses in the Riviera hinterland are involved: Le Riou at Terre Blanche, an 18 hole course of 6,005 metres that hosts the first stage of the Terre Blanche Ladies Open, Golf d’Opio-Valbonne, set in a 220 hectare protected estate between Cannes, Nice and Grasse and designed by Donald Harradine, and Golf de la Grande Bastide, at Châteauneuf de Grasse, designed by Cabell Robinson.

For Cannes, what is at stake goes beyond the green: every show at the Palais fills the hotels and restaurants of the Croisette during the week, and this one connects the city directly with the buyers who will programme the golf trips of the coming seasons. The show closes on Thursday evening with its farewell evening, after four days of appointments and three days of conferences at the Palais.