The Yacht Show (MYS) has evolved to be one of the Crown Jewels of the Principality – an international event that attracts an elite audience. Last year’s attendance figures were in the stratosphere at around 30.000 visitors. Gaëlle Tallarida is General Manager of the Monaco Yacht Show and she would be the first to tell you that the growth of the global prestige of the Yacht Show does not happen by accident.
Every month, somewhere in the world, Gaelle’s team creates a promotional event that raises the profile of the Principality and its reputation as the mecca for Super-Yachts. Difficult though it is to believe as many as 120 SuperYachts will converge around the MYS in Port Hercule this September. Did you know that from September 26th to September 29th in 2018 it will be the 28th annual running of the Show in the Principality with 580 exhibitors?
The Show has become so popular that some frustrated Lamborghini and Rolls Royce owners have found it a tad more difficult to drive near the Port area. So MYS has come up with a novel solution for 2018 – lay a floating walkway from Quay États Unis to Quaie Antione. That’s a win/win for the visitors walking around the Show and it also draws pedestrian traffic away from congested areas.
Can you guess how many boat launches are going to happen during the Show – forty in all! One wonders if the surface of the Mediterranean will rise a fraction of a millimetre with all that boating activity.
Every year the MYS innovates and this year there will be an Art Expo alongside the Show. Last year’s thirty thousand visitors was a result of tireless efforts by the MYS team – but the absolute number is not the “Be-all and End-all”. It is the quality of the Show’s draw that counts. To this end there are highly targeted campaigns – for example, the VIP Sapphire package that couples a visit to the Principality with jaunts on the most beautiful boats and yachts at the Show.
HelloMonaco interviewed Gaelle Tallarida at Monaco’s Junior Chamber of Commerce, Business Time event organized by Emmanuelle Ragazzi-Lavarello. Gaelle told us about the happiest moments in her long association with the Yacht Show.
“There is a truly happy moment every year. It comes at the end of the Yacht Show. We have a celebration, my team and I together on the Quai where it all started twenty-eight years ago. The yachts are all blowing their horns in salute, celebrating with us. We are like a family and it is time of great happiness. The team has worked incredibly hard all year to arrive at that day. And you can imagine, all those hours, more hours than we spend with our actual families. I believe that is one of the main reasons the team is successful. We may bring together different points of view but in end we bond together like a family. This has always been my vision of how a team should work – and it is one of the secrets to the success of the Yacht Show.”
She also revealed that Raphael Nadal was one of the amazing personalities who made a special visit to MYS and left a truly unique impression. We can’t wait to see the celebrity trail in this September’s Yacht Show which is sailing towards us very fast.