The show that opens its doors to visitors on September 23 2015 will be a celebration of the event’s 25th anniversary. For 25 years, the Monaco Yacht Show has been a tale of one city: Monte Carlo. Throughout its history, it has always successfully developed great expectations, and met them with aplomb.
25 years ago, the Principality of Monaco had no flagship yachting event of its own, despite already being the international meeting point for large yacht owners and their broker agents, who arrived in the city’s port to discuss sales, charters and refitting. Deals were struck, contracts signed, and new yachts were built as a result of those meetings. The local authorities realised they should develop yacht business activities around the iconic Port Hercules.
Those who attended the very first edition of the Monaco Yacht Show, back in 1991, will surely recall the entire event, with around 50 exhibiting companies, mainly from Monaco and the French Riviera, eager to show their wares. Just a handful of foreign companies took stands, and 30 yachts, whose average length was just 32 metres, were made available to those who sought to inspect them.
Around 40 luxury tenders will be exhibited, and 500 exhibiting companies will display their most innovative, tailor-made products and services
More than two decades later, the show has moved on more than a little. The same Monaco-based yachting businesses have grown as the show has developed into the world’s premier superyacht event. Few can argue now that Monaco is the world hub of the superyacht industry, and the jewel in the industry’s crown is undoubtedly the principality’s annual yachting show.
Gaëlle Tallarida, Managing Director of the Monaco Yacht Show, confirmed this view: “Alongside the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, the Monaco Yacht Show is a world-leading event that attracts over 33,000 participants in four days. As a direct consequence, all hotels are fully booked weeks in advance, over 100 social events are organised by the exhibitors in hotels or local restaurants, and the local economy as a whole – from small shops to luxury boutiques in Monte Carlo – benefits from the show”.
In September 2015, the Monaco Yacht Show will deliver its largest ever event, unveiling a record-breaking showcase of 121 spectacular superyachts, up to 90 metres in length. The expected average size of the yachts this year exceeds 47 metres. Around 40 luxury tenders will also be exhibited, and 500 exhibiting companies will display their most innovative, tailor-made products and services, sitting at the pinnacle of luxury yachting.
What to expect
The world is on the road to recovery, following a slump in financial markets. With a new air of confidence, orders are being signed, designers are talking of ever-larger tonnage, and the myriad service industries that surround the building of yachts are flourishing as a result. Visitors to this year’s show will have every reason to notice a spring in the step of those walking the docks.
Indeed, with almost 90 percent of exhibitors renewing their participations every year (around 500 exhibitors will attend), alongside all the professionals of the luxury and nautical industries, yacht owners, and potential superyacht clients that attend the show, the Monaco Yacht Show is unanimously considered the world business hub in superyachting.
“We can humbly advance that participating in the Monaco Yacht Show is a guarantee of developing your business, either immediately by signing a contract with your client during the show, or in the next few months by intensively developing your networking over four days for future deals”, Tallarida claimed, before adding: “The Monaco Yacht Show also represents a public showcase for the superyachting community. In such a small industry, it is so important to maintain your business relations and to present the solid health of your company. For instance, you can’t exhibit on a smaller stand the year after! This would be interpreted as something having gone wrong. In the end, participating in the Monaco Yacht Show guarantees that a firm will be considered a solid member of the superyacht world, and will thus benefit from all the associated advantages in terms of exposure and business network.”
The new elite
Being part of the enjoyment of the Monaco Yacht Show is attractive to many in the industry and, as the industry expands, so there are many new faces eager to share in that same excitement. In recent years, there has been a surge in the younger buyer entering the superyacht market. Now, instead of flying in from the USA and driving in from mainland Europe, wealthy visitors are flocking to Monaco from all over the world. They bring not just their money, but with it a new enthusiasm for tasting the good life in luxury on the water. For many years, the world of superyachting has been one of the world’s best kept secrets, but the bubble has burst and new blood is not only keen to taste the adventure, but is hungry enough to devour it.
Much of this new wave of excitement has come about following an awareness programme devised and implemented by show organisers, working with partners in the Far East. It has created a better understanding by introducing the superyacht concept to an awakening audience. Organising events like Monaco Week in Shanghai and Beijing during June 2015 did a great deal to promote Monaco as a destination, and the superyacht industry to the Chinese social elite. Working with the Monaco Embassy in China and Chinese Media Partner Blu Inc Media has done much to attract visitors from Asia. China Night in Monaco and visits to the Monaco Yacht Show from VIP guests encountered in China will do much to cement a relationship with this burgeoning superyacht elite.