| Next edition | Jun 2026 · ExCeL London |
|---|---|
| Starting price | £3,950+ |
| Venue | ExCeL London |
| Next edition | June 2027 |
| Audience | EMEA |
| Duration | 2 days |
| Quote turnaround | 48hr |
Business Travel Show Europe Stand Builders: ExCeL Logistics, the Corporate Travel Buyer, and What Wins Programmes
Business Travel Show Europe is widely regarded as Europe's leading event for corporate travel, held each June at ExCeL London and co-located with The Meetings Show. Its audience is senior and commercial: corporate travel managers, procurement specialists and buyers from across the EMEA region, looking at airlines, hotels, TMCs, rail, payment providers and travel technology to build and benchmark their travel programmes.
These are considered, often high-value B2B relationships, so the brief is credibility plus conversation. The stand has to state clearly what you offer a travel programme, demonstrate the service or technology where you can, and — like its co-located sister show — give you proper space to host the meetings, including hosted-buyer appointments, where the real business is done.
A passing brochure rarely wins a corporate travel contract; a good conversation with a procurement lead can. We design the stand to make those conversations happen and to make them comfortable.
For an airline, hotel, TMC or tech provider that means the stand has to earn a serious conversation, not just a scanned badge: project credibility to a commercial audience, and give procurement and travel managers a comfortable place to discuss a programme. The exhibitors who win contracts here build for credibility and meeting capacity.
Building at ExCeL London: the rules that shape your stand
ExCeL is a pillar-free hall with around 10m of clear internal height, but your stand does not get all of it. For space-only stands the working height limit at most ExCeL shows is 6m, and anything ExCeL classes as a complex structure — double-deckers, heavy suspended elements, long unsupported spans — triggers a formal sign-off you need to budget time for, not just money.
Complex designs must be submitted with engineering calculations applying a minimum factor of safety of 1.5. An independent structural engineer reviews the drawings and, if satisfied, issues a Certificate of Structural Adequacy at design stage, which releases your Certificate to Build; the same engineer inspects the stand on site during build-up before you can open. Miss a calculation or submit late and you do not build.
Overhead rigging is controlled tightly: all primary rigging to the ceiling is installed exclusively by ExCeL's own team, ordered through ExCeL's webshop and confirmed around 28 days before tenancy for the advance rate. Lightweight static items hang from drop wires up to 50kg; heavier loads are separate, costlier orders.
The smaller rules catch people out too: platforms above 170mm need ramped, accessible access; solid walls along an open gangway edge are generally not allowed; only water-based paint may be used on site; and every structure must be fully self-supporting. We design to all of this from the first sketch and submit the venue paperwork, so the build you approve is the build that opens.
What a winning business travel stand needs
The stands that work here balance a clear, credible brand presence with genuine meeting capacity. We design a frontage that states who you are and what you do for a travel programme in a glance, and behind it the seated space to talk properly with buyers and procurement teams — because the decisions made here involve real budgets and aren't taken standing in an aisle. For travel-tech and payment exhibitors, we build a clean demo point so the platform can be shown, not just described.
Credibility cues matter to this commercial audience: recognisable clients, clear service propositions and real proof carry more weight than gloss, so we design space for evidence and a professional, trustworthy feel rather than noise.
Clarity earns its place on a busy floor shared with co-located shows: a travel manager should know what you offer their programme before they reach the stand, so we give your proposition a bold, readable headline rather than burying it in detail.
Designing for buyers, procurement and hosted meetings
Like The Meetings Show next door, a share of the valuable conversations are pre-booked hosted-buyer meetings, so we design the stand to host a schedule well: enough seated settings for your peak, separation so meetings don't overlap, and a quieter setting for senior or confidential procurement discussions. A clear welcome point helps a buyer with a packed diary find and reach you between appointments.
We also design for the walk-up: a clear hook and a knowledgeable point of contact so an unbooked travel manager who stops gets a useful first conversation and a reason to follow up.
What a Business Travel Show stand costs
A turnkey stand typically runs roughly £3,950–£12,500 for a compact custom build, £12,500–£28,000 for a mid-size build with a demo point and several meeting settings, and £28,000 and up for a flagship airline, hotel-group or TMC stand. The quote is turnkey — design, build, graphics, lighting, furniture, delivery to ExCeL, install, dismantle and the venue paperwork are all included — and meeting capacity, any technology demo and finish quality move the number most.
For a relationship-led B2B show, the spend that pays back is in credibility and meeting capacity rather than spectacle — a stand that lets you host more serious conversations, more professionally.
What you don't pay extra for matters on a budget-conscious B2B show: the figure is genuinely all-in, so material handling, electrical and last-minute rigging are already accounted for, leaving you to spend your attention on the buyers.
Stand sizes and layouts
Stands range from compact spaces for niche tech and service providers up to large islands for airlines, hotel groups and major TMCs. The layout balances a credible, branded frontage with the seated meeting capacity behind, and — where relevant — a clean demo position, so we scale the meeting area to how many buyers you expect to host across two days.
Open or corner positions help your brand be seen and approached on a busy floor shared with the co-located shows.
Whatever the size, we protect enough seated, well-separated meeting space, because corporate travel decisions are made in proper conversations, and a stand with nowhere to have them sends a buyer away to a competitor who has the room.
Getting into ExCeL: build-up timing
Business Travel Show Europe sits in a busy June run at ExCeL alongside its co-located shows, so build-up slots, rigging and power book up early and late orders attract surcharges. We confirm your space-only window, order rigging and power at the advance rate, coordinate around the shared-venue schedule, and crate to a slot that lands the stand finished and ready to host its first meeting at opening.
Reusing your stand between editions
Airlines, hotels, TMCs and tech providers tend to return every year, so a modular, reusable stand is sound economics. We store the core, refresh the branding, proof points and any demo for each edition, and keep your meeting-capacity plan on file — so each June starts from a known, professional setup rather than a rebuild, and scales as your programme of buyer meetings grows.
We also keep the proof points and any demo current between editions, because a corporate travel audience notices stale messaging, and last year's pitch undersells this year's service — so each return is a refresh, not a rebuild.
Next step for your Business Travel Show Europe stand
Send us your space size, hall position and goals for Business Travel Show Europe. You'll get a custom 3D concept and a fixed, all-inclusive quote within 48 hours — designed to ExCeL's rules, with structural sign-off built into the timeline if your design needs it. We build in-house and install at ExCeL London, so the stand you approve in the rendering is the stand that opens.
We also design and build exhibition stands for other major UK shows — see the full show calendar for travel & tourism and beyond, all with the same in-house team, fixed all-in pricing and full venue paperwork.