Short answer: yes, but not for every company and not against your stand invoice. Fair participation support sits inside the Export Supports Decree, put into force by Presidential Decree no. 5973 dated 17 August 2022, and it is open to companies that are members of an exporters' union and to producers and manufacturers established in Türkiye. The calculation runs on square metres. Article 7 of the decree supports foreign fair participation for a maximum of 5 fairs starting within one calendar year, based on a per square metre reference amount applied to the size of the participant's stand. According to the 2026 support ceiling table published by the Ministry of Trade, the maximum payment per foreign fair is 738,563 TL for general fairs, 1,231,848 TL for sectoral fairs and 3,698,274 TL for prestigious fairs. Domestically, the 2026 ceiling is 392,446 TL for participants and 1,292,800 TL at prestigious domestic fairs. 2026 is also the year the domestic rules changed: Presidential Decree no. 9723, published in the Official Gazette on 17 April 2025, moved domestic fair support onto the same per square metre model, and the change applies to fairs starting on or after 1 January 2026. Below: who qualifies, how the amount is built, how many fairs a year are covered, where the deadline slips away and how to plan a stand budget around all of it.
Who can claim fair participation support?
Two groups. Article 2 of decree no. 5973 defines a foreign fair participant as a company that is a member of an exporters' union, or a producer or manufacturer established in Türkiye, taking part in fairs on the lists announced by the Ministry. The domestic definition is narrower: companies that are members of an exporters' union and take part in supported domestic fairs. This is export policy money, so a company with no production or export footing does not have a door here. On application, the production side is evidenced by a capacity report, or where a capacity report cannot be obtained, by an expertise report or activity certificate from the relevant chamber of industry or commerce. Companies that market rather than manufacture are also covered, provided they file a marketing agreement with the producer or manufacturer and that company's capacity report. The second condition is the list. The Ministry's 2026 lists carry 1,844 foreign fairs eligible for individual participation and 268 national participation organisations. If your fair is not on the list, article 5 of the implementing circular requires the request to add it to be filed through the Support Management System at the latest 1 month before the fair starts. Smaller companies that fall outside these definitions should look at KOSGEB's domestic fair support under its Business Development Support Programme, which runs on separate conditions.
Is the payment based on invoices or on square metres?
On square metres. Article 2 of the decree defines the foreign fair reference amount as the per square metre sum paid to the participant against space rental, freight, transport and stand related costs. The Ministry sets and announces that amount fair by fair, and the payment comes out of it multiplied by the size of your stand. The reference amount has its own ceiling. Under article 7, it cannot exceed 50 percent of the approximate total cost per square metre, 70 percent in target countries designated by the Ministry, and 75 percent for participants attending fairs in those target countries while operating in designated target sectors. One more limit sits on top: article 29 states that support paid under the decree can never exceed 75 percent of the expenditure in question. So spending more on the stand does not increase the payment, but the spending itself sets the ceiling of what can be paid. Payment is made in Turkish lira, with foreign currency costs converted at the Central Bank buying rate on the date of the payment document.
How much does a single fair pay in 2026?
The Ministry of Trade's 2026 ceiling table splits the figures by fair type. For company participation in foreign fairs, the maximum per fair is 738,563 TL at general fairs, 1,231,848 TL at sectoral fairs and 3,698,274 TL at prestigious fairs. Domestically, participant support is capped at 392,446 TL, rising to 1,292,800 TL at prestigious domestic fairs. Virtual fair participation carries a 2026 ceiling of 3,698,274 TL. None of these numbers is fixed. Article 30 of the decree updates support ceilings at the start of each calendar year by the average of the consumer price index and the domestic producer price index. The same article ties fair support ceilings to the calendar year in which the fair takes place. For a calendar squeezed between December and January that distinction moves real money, because the payment follows the year of the fair rather than the year of the application.
How many fairs a year are covered, and how does the prestigious quota work?
Abroad, the base rule is a maximum of 5 fairs starting within one calendar year. Article 7 raises that limit to 10 for producers and manufacturers and for participants defined in the implementing circular. Article 18 of the circular describes that group: companies registered as micro or small enterprises in the KOSGEB database, where no legal entity or public institution holds 25 percent or more of the shares. For them the reference amount is set at 75 percent of the approximate total cost per square metre with no distinction between countries or sectors, which is the highest rate in the system. It is not automatic. The circular requires the participant to request that calculation in the payment application filed through the Support Management System, or while completing missing documents. Prestigious fairs are counted separately and, from 2026, from a single pool: a maximum of 2 prestigious fairs per calendar year, with any domestic prestigious claim deducted from the foreign quota. Support can be claimed a maximum of 10 times for the same recurring fair. Two versions of a seasonal fair held in the same country and sector within one year count as a single fair for the annual limit, and that option can be used only 3 times a year.
What changed for domestic fairs in 2026?
The calculation model. Presidential Decree no. 9723, published in the Official Gazette on 17 April 2025, amended articles 2, 7 and 8 of decree no. 5973 and moved domestic fair support onto a per square metre reference amount. The change applies to fairs starting on or after 1 January 2026, while fairs that started earlier stay under the previous rules. The scope is narrow: support exists only for fairs on the Ministry's list, and the 2026 list carries 77 fairs. The note at the head of that list is the part most companies miss. It states that the listed fairs are treated as prestigious, that participants can use domestic prestigious support for a maximum of 2 fairs per calendar year, that any foreign prestigious support already used is deducted from that count, and that the ceiling drops to 392,446 TL where prestigious support is not requested. To make the list at all, a fair has to clear the thresholds in article 8 at its most recent edition, or at 2 of its last 3: at least 1,500 foreign visitors, foreign visitors above 10 percent of total visitors, at least 400 exhibitors in total, foreign exhibitors above 10 percent, at least 10,000 square metres of stand space allocated to exhibitors and at least 300 square metres allocated to foreign exhibitors.
How is the application filed, and where does the deadline slip?
Everything runs through the Support Management System. Article 7 of the circular for foreign fairs and article 26 for domestic fairs give the same window: 3 months following the end of the fair. An application not submitted through the system within that window is not evaluated, and the clock is read from the date the completed application was sent, not the date you started assembling it. The file is concluded by the exporters' union secretariat the participant belongs to. Two things have to happen during the fair itself, and neither can be fixed afterwards. First, the observer record. Under article 9, the fair observer prepares a participant list showing how many square metres each company occupied, the authorised person on the stand signs it and thereby declares the information correct, and that record governs any later dispute. Your square metre figure is read from there, not from your contractor's quote. Second, the evaluation form. Article 10 states that participants who fail to complete and return the evaluation form distributed by the observer at foreign fair organisations will not have their applications evaluated. Payment rules are equally plain: under article 39, expenditure under review has to be paid through banking channels, cash deposits into a bank account and payments by customer or endorsed cheque are excluded, while credit card payments in a single charge or in instalments are accepted.
How should the stand budget be built around these rules?
Three decisions drive the budget. First, square metres, because the payment is multiplied by them; the gap between a 24 square metre stand and a 48 square metre one is not only cost, it is entitlement. Second, the type of fair, since the 2026 ceiling runs from 738,563 TL at a general fair to 3,698,274 TL at a prestigious one. Third, the plan for the year. Spending the five fair quota on small first quarter appearances means arriving at the autumn fair you actually care about with nothing left, and the prestigious quota is tighter still at two a year across domestic and foreign fairs combined. Four habits make the operational side easier. Write the stand area in square metres clearly into the contract and the invoice, and make sure it matches the observer record exactly. Pay space rental, stand build and freight through banking channels, and collect e-invoices in the format the application requires. Start the three month countdown in your calendar the day the fair closes. And put the fair's own technical regulations on the table before design work begins, because height limits, rigging permissions, power supply and build up hours change from fair to fair. Tales Event works out of Istanbul and delivers exhibition stand design and production, decor, staging, sound, lighting and LED screen setup across Türkiye from a single team. Send the fair name, the dates and the square metres you have booked, and we will build the stand concept alongside the build schedule and the paperwork the application asks for.
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