Destination Focus on Monaco

Nestled between France & Italy, The Principality of Monaco is a mere 35-minute drive or 7-minute helicopter from Nice-Cote d’Azur International Airport which has connections to 100 international destinations and 70 flights a day to Europe’s main hubs. With its 300 days of sunshine and everything in walking distance, it is the ideal year-round destination for events. Sandrine Camia, Director of the Monaco Convention Bureau shares her hidden secrets…

Unique selling points of Monaco as a destination

• Monaco is one of the easiest destinations to reach from UK & Ireland with more than 25 daily flights from London City, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, East Midlands, and Belfast.
• Monaco is considered one of the safest nations in the world and where everything is within walking distance.
• There is a great selection of hotels offering 2,500 rooms and a long-lasting tradition of welcoming demanding clients.
• The Grimaldi Forum Monaco is a high-tech, eco-certified convention centre, with 35,000 square meters of floor space, it can host events for up to 3,000 people.
• The mild temperature makes it perfect destination for every season, including winter when destination offers very good value for money.
• Principality of Monaco is also a dynamic, competitive and innovative community possessing real knowledge hubs and experts in many sectors.

Value for money

• The destination offers very good value for money, especially outside of the summer peak periods. Prices of hotels in Monaco are equal to or lower than those in the same category in other major European cities. Here are few examples:
• Hotel rates of Monaco Meetings offer are starting at 206 euros in 4-star category for low season 2019 (January to march + November & December) and 171 euros in 3-star category, including breakfast and WIFI access, upgrades and complimentary rooms for staff.
• Destination is compact and safe. Most of hotels are walking destination to the convention center, offering big savings on time and transportation.
• Monaco has a wide selection of restaurants and venues. It is famous for unique venues (Salle des Etoiles, ballrooms of Hotel de Paris and Hotel Hermitage …) and highly rated restaurants, but many more offer various menus and accessible range of prices: brasserie style, Italian, international, vegan. For groups, event organizers will find attractive dine-around solutions at very competitive prices.

A selection of venues

Monte Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SMB) manages and owns four hotels – Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, Monte-Carlo Beach, Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort and the Méridien Beach Plaza – with a total of 850 rooms. Combined, these hotels offer 50 meeting and banqueting rooms, 30 restaurants and bars, three spas, a Beach Club, 23 tennis courts, an 18-hole golf course and four casinos to choose from.

Fairmont Monte Carlo offers professional meeting facilities supported by a comprehensive array of professional and state-of-the-art services. The event planners offer expertise in planning events and the hotel’s meeting venues comprise of spaces suitable for an executive meeting for 10 and a professional conference for 900. Meeting venues include flexible meeting rooms, dedicated boardrooms, upscale hospitality suites and one of the largest ballrooms in the French Riviera. Fairmont Monte Carlo also offers certified meeting professionals and a Learning Environment Specialist who are on hand to organise and oversee the critical details that make a meeting great.

Hotel Metropole comprises of 126 rooms, including 64 suites, two Michelin starred restaurants, a pool-side restaurant designed by Karl Lagerfeld, Lobby bar, Spa Metropole by Givenchy and six conference rooms. This includes three meeting rooms featuring interiors by Karl Lagerfeld; Homere is ideal for presentations, Penelope & Ulysse are meeting rooms that can be combined or used separately, The Foyer is perfect for small committee meetings, a reception office or coffee breaks whilst The Theatre can be customised for lots of different types of events.

Key Figures

• Monaco hosts around 500 business events per year.
• Monaco has seen significant increase of meeting & events business for the past 5 years.
• MICE business represented 26% of tourism activity in 2017 (against 18% in 2012) with a 6% increase of room nights compared to 2016.
• Finance, Medical and IT sectors represented 59% of M.I.C.E. business activity in 2017 with an increase of market share of 5 points and +6% of room nights compared to 2016.
• These same sectors represented 48% of MICE Business in 2013, the year of the launch of a new marketing campaign for promoting business tourism in Monaco.
• The trend is strengthening in 2018 with an increase in the number of room nights by + 10% by end of June (more than 8,000 overnight stays) and a market share of 32% of total tourism for the first semester.

Support from Monaco Convention Bureau

To facilitate the organisation of each event, the Monaco Convention Bureau offers and delivers a unique, high-value “Monaco Meetings” package, featuring affordable harmonised hotel rates and great benefits and services offering great value for money.

The main conditions for taking advantage of the Monaco Meetings offer are:
RFP has to be sent to your local Monaco Convention Bureau
Significant occupancy of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco
Book a minimum of 1,200 room nights during a minimum of two consecutive nights and two hotels located in the Principality.

Monaco meetings offer includes discounted hotel rooms and meeting space rental, complimentary welcome cocktails for all participants, discounted airport transfers and free access to public buses in the Principality.

Subject to size, length of stay, significant occupancy of convention centre, the Government could also offer financial support in room rental at the Convention Centre. Financial support should be commensurate with the economic impact of the event. There is no minimum or maximum basis, just a tailor-made proposal.