The latest virtual edition of FHS World has gone live, allowing hospitality leaders, investors and professionals anywhere in the world to explore the Dubai event online, at any time and from any device.
FHS World 2026 has extended its reach far beyond the walls of Madinat Jumeirah with the launch of an immersive digital twin capturing the summit, exhibition and principal networking spaces.
Created by virtual imaging pioneers Virtual World Internet, the Matterport experience enables visitors to move through FHS World as if they were attending in person, exploring the registration area, exhibition hall, Summit Stage and Investor’s Lounge in their own time.
The virtual experience is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, opening the event to a global audience that extends well beyond those able to travel to Dubai.
It also gives delegates who attended FHS World the opportunity to revisit the venue, reconnect with exhibitors and explore parts of the event they may have missed during three intensive days of meetings, presentations and networking.
FHS World 2026 is taking place at Madinat Jumeirah from September 29th to October 1st under the theme “Reinvest in Our Future”. The summit brings together hotel owners, investors, operators, developers, government leaders, tourism authorities, consultants and technology companies from across the global hospitality sector.
Speakers include H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, H.E. Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Sir Tim Clark, William Heinecke, Philippe Zuber, Sonu Shivdasani, Marc Dardenne and Phillipa Harrison.
While the physical gathering remains at the heart of FHS World, the digital twin ensures that the knowledge, investment activity and commercial energy generated in Dubai can continue to reach the industry long after the exhibition stands have been dismantled.
Extending the life of an international event
Major hospitality conferences bring together an extraordinary concentration of people, brands and ideas, but their physical lifespan is traditionally short. Delegates arrive, meetings take place and the venue is cleared within days.
An immersive digital twin changes that equation.
Rather than allowing the physical event to disappear at closing time, the Matterport environment preserves it as a navigable digital destination. Visitors can walk through the exhibition hall, examine how companies presented themselves, understand the scale and layout of the summit and experience the atmosphere of the venue from anywhere in the world.
For exhibitors and partners, this provides a valuable second life for the investment made in their physical presence. Stands remain visible, branding continues to be discovered and the event can be incorporated into follow-up campaigns, presentations and conversations with clients who were unable to attend.
For delegates, the digital twin functions as a visual record of the event. It offers a far more intuitive way to revisit FHS World than a conventional image gallery because users can move independently through the space and explore it from their chosen perspective.
It also makes FHS World more accessible. Travel schedules, budgets, visa requirements and limited availability prevent many hospitality professionals from attending major international events in person. Virtual access does not replace the importance of face-to-face meetings, but it allows a much wider audience to experience the scale and character of the gathering.
A powerful tool for hospitality
The value of digital twins extends well beyond conferences. The technology has increasingly important applications across hotels, resorts, branded residences, restaurants and event venues.
For hotel owners and operators, an immersive tour allows potential guests to understand a property before making a reservation. Rather than relying solely on selected photographs, visitors can explore the relationship between rooms, public spaces, restaurants, pools, beaches and meeting facilities.
For developers and investors, digital twins can provide a detailed visual record of an asset at a particular moment, supporting remote presentations, investment discussions, design reviews and project monitoring.
Sales teams can use the same environment to present properties to international buyers, travel advisers, event planners and corporate clients without requiring every prospect to make an initial site visit.
Conference and wedding planners can examine ballrooms, meeting rooms and circulation spaces before discussing layouts and capacity with a venue. Hotel teams can also use digital environments for familiarisation, training, operational planning and documenting refurbishments.
In an industry built around physical experiences, the ability to communicate space accurately is particularly powerful. Floor plans provide measurements and photography creates desire, but an interactive digital twin helps people understand how a place fits together.
Virtual World Internet specialises in creating interactive imaging solutions for the travel and tourism sector, with tours designed for use across websites, sales presentations and future promotional campaigns. Its work at FHS World demonstrates how the same technology can capture not only an individual property but an entire industry gathering.
Explore Virtual FHS World 2026
Visitors can now enter the different areas of FHS World through four immersive experiences:
Enter FHS World 2026 through Registration
Explore the FHS World Summit Stage
Walk through the FHS World Exhibition Hall
Visit the FHS World Investor’s Lounge
The launch reinforces a wider shift in how the hospitality sector approaches major events. A summit no longer needs to be confined by geography, capacity or time. Through its immersive digital twin, FHS World 2026 remains open to the global hospitality community wherever they are, whenever they choose to visit.
