Monaco: an exceptional destination

In the 1860s, fortune smiled upon the Principality when it opted to focus on spas and gaming. But those days are long gone. In 2009, gaming generated only slightly under €211 million ($292 million), representing less than three per cent of the State’s revenue for a GDP of over €4.5 billion ($6.2 billion). Monaco has successfully embraced modernity, diversifying its economic activities. Every day, 40,000 people travel into the Principality from neighbouring communes to work – almost as many as the number of Monegasque residents.

THE Principality of Monaco symbolises fine living and the art of welcoming visitors. Its choice of hotels and congress infrastructures is unrivalled. It can offer individual tourists and groups of tourists an array of hotels spanning the entire range – from luxury hotels to two-star hotels. On top of this, Monaco can also offer large-scale, structured and secure logistics for the organisation of events.

Monaco has embarked on a policy of excellence in matters of hotels and congresses. The Principality is seen as a benchmark for the perfect hosting of visitors in the fields of individual tourism, incentive and corporate travel, international business tourism events and key regional and cultural events. The Principality offers a particularly varied range of 15 hotels, open all year round. Since august 2010, a new hotel rating system has been put in place. The four-star-luxury category has been abolished, now replaced by the five-star category.

There are four establishments in this most luxurious category, offering the height of comfort: The Hotel Hermitage, the Hotel de Paris, the Hotel Métropole Monte-Carlo and the Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel.

The Fairmont Monte Carlo and the Méridien Beach Plaza are rated in the four-star category, Along with the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort and the Port Palace. Apart from these internationally reputed luxury hotels, the Principality boasts five three-star hotels: (the Ambassador, the Columbus, the Miramar, the Ni Hôtel and the Novotel), and two two-star hotels. Over 2,400 rooms and suites are thus made available to a clientele that visits from all over the globe, but mostly from Italy, France, Great Britain, the United States and Germany.

Monaco is a natural Mecca for gourmet cuisine, eight stars at the Michelin guide thanks to the talent and the international reputations of the great chefs who work in the Principality.

Monaco is unique in grouping together within its limited perimeter a whole range of hotels and congress centres. The complete scope of the services provided by these structures – in terms of volume, capacity, locations and styles – means that events of all types can be accommodated simultaneously, each in a perfectly fitting setting. In 2009, the Principality hosted 495 events for the most part congresses. Business tourism accounted for 60 per cent of new clients and almost 146,000 hotel nights. Almost 78 per cent of these hotel nights corresponded to clients stemming from the medical, automobile, financial, IT and sports sectors.

Monaco’s key congress and exhibition centre is the Grimaldi Forum. In 2008, it became one of the first congress centres in Europe to be awarded the ISO 14001/2004 environmental certificate. Then in 2010, it received the ultimate accolade when it was elected best conference centre at the M&IT Awards.

The Grimaldi Forum comprises 35,000 sq m of modular floor space that can accommodate approximately 3,000 people, plus the latest technological equipment placed at the service of major international businesses and event organisers, host of trade fairs organised in it each year.

The Grimaldi Forum has thus perpetuated its commitment to acting in favour of cleaner, environmentally friendlier events.

Many major international companies have already been won over by the forum’s modular floor space totalling 35,000 sq m its latest technological updates, and a team that is available and attentive to the needs of event organisers.

With an efficient congress and exhibition centre that can cater for up to 3,000 participants, the Principality thus emerges as a key destination for business tourism. Monaco’s congress centre is able to provide the ideal setting for all types of events; they can be held simultaneously without undermining the harmony of the venue: congress, seminar, convention, trade show, symposium, product launch, exhibitions and gala events.

For 10 years now, the Grimaldi Forum Monaco has stood out as the Principality’s benchmark facility for organising trade fairs and congresses. It is big enough to accommodate major events.

Monaco’s congress centre has also been a pioneer in developing a form of business tourism that is environmentally responsible.