MARKETING TECHNIQUE: CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITIONS; Bien venue

Paris has always been a top incentive destination. Now Eurotunnel has

increased the popularity of the French connection.

Eurotunnel not only revolutionised the holiday market when it opened

just over a year ago, it also made a significant impact on conference

and incentive travel.

Psychologically, it has brought northern France closer to home, and the

convenience of travelling city centre to city centre has made day trips

to Paris popular for corporate entertaining, incentives and even short

conferences.

‘What is tending to happen as a result of the Eurostar service and the

prices is that more people are doing day trips to Paris,’ says Claire

Drewer, manager of logistics at event organiser Spectrum Communications.

‘We had one group that went out on the train, had a meeting in a hotel,

lunch at the Eiffel Tower and then came back that night, first class.

The first-class travel is part and parcel of the incentive on trips like

these.’

Paul Hussey, general manager of venue-finding agency Banks Sadler, says

the train has made a big difference. ‘We’ve used it for people coming

from all over the country,’ he says. ‘It’s very, very popular and it’s

easy. We’ve had a lot of companies wanting to take just eight people,

say, for lunch.’

Relative to other forms of corporate entertaining, lunch in Paris is

quite reasonable. Worcestershire-based Moyles Masterkey was one of the

first companies to package day trips on the train and offers all

inclusive packages from around pounds 190 a head in second class or

pounds 240 in first, based on 40 guests.

But Paris has not had an easy time in 1995. Paris may be glamorous but

the exchange rate of the franc against the pound is proving a big

disadvantage. Paris has also suffered some severe dents to its image.

Terrorism has not made a big impression on British groups but other

markets, such as the US, have been affected. Nuclear testing in the

South Pacific has led to a few companies boycotting the destination and

has done little overall to create a positive impression.

Since 1979, the city has been rated number one in the world by the trade

body Union des Associations Internationales for the number of

international conventions it hosts. While this is unlikely to change,

the number of smaller conferences and incentives coming from the UK has

been affected.

‘1996 will be a good year but this season has not been what it should

be,’ says Catherine Pascaud, managing director of Servitours, one of the

leading conference organisers in Paris. ‘The weakness of the pound is a

problem but we try to manage by offering less expensive programmes.’

One bonus for British organisers considering Paris is that the city’s

hotels, which are notoriously busy, do have availability this autumn and

winter. ‘Although the exchange rate is not brilliant, UK hotels are in

such demand that they’re expensive, too,’ Hussey points out. ‘There’s a

regular band of enquiries, usually for the good four-star hotels in

Paris.’

Entertaining conference delegates in Paris need not cost the earth. ‘We

can arrange dinners in Montmartre,’ says Pascaud. ‘In a way it’s

touristy there but people like it because it’s so alive and very famous.

The restaurants there are not expensive. There are plenty of brasseries

around Republique, as well, which cost less than the more classical

restaurants.’

Some museums are quite reasonably priced for private functions in

unusual settings. The Musee Grevin, the Parisian waxworks, takes 150 for

dinner, and the wine museum, in a 14th century abbey five minutes from

the Eiffel Tower, takes the same number. For around a hundred guests,

one of the glass-roofed Bateaux Parisiens riverboats can be hired for a

cocktail cruise along the Seine.

New this year is Les Ateliers du Cuivre et de l’Argent, a copper and

silver workshop where receptions and demonstrations can be arranged.

For big budgets some spectacular events can be arranged. Groups can hire

the indoor courtyard under the brilliantly coloured glass dome in the

Printemps department store for cocktails, dinners and fashion shows.

Various museums, including the Louvre, will also rent out their space

for functions, while the Eiffel Tower has a function room on the first

floor.

Outside the city, Disneyland Paris is attracting a lot of attention in

the corporate market. Of the six hotels in the park, three are suitable

for conferences with the most prestigious, the Hotel New York, fully

equipped to handle big conventions.

American Express used the theme park for a combined conference and

motivation event for 1100 sales staff last year, with delegates arriving

from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The event took over the Hotel

New York and, as well as meeting sessions, involved various sightseeing

trips, chateau visits, dinners in central Paris and, of course, visits

to the amusements at Disneyland.

‘Some people were a little sceptical about using Disneyland,’ says

Drewer, whose Spectrum Communications organised the event. ‘But it was

the benefits of the Hotel New York that swung the decision and the whole

event worked very well.’

VENUES

Luxury hotels

For smaller, high-budget events, there is plenty of choice: the city’s

collection of five-star hotels are mostly elegant, turn-of-the-century

properties around the eighth arrondissement, close to the Place de la

Concorde. Establishments such as the Royal Monceau, Crillon, the Ritz,

Forte’s George V, the Plaza Athenee and the Scribe are all ideal for

board-level events - if they have space. Typical costs for the Royal

Monceau, with 219 rooms and six meeting rooms are a 24-hour inclusive

rate of pounds 295 per person.

Conference hotels

Paris has some vast hotels that are geared up to handling conferences of

all sizes. The Sofitel St Jacques, on the Left Bank, has 800 rooms and

41 meeting rooms, taking from ten to 1200 delegates. Meridien has two

large hotels, one at Etoile with 1025 bedrooms and Le Meridien

Montparnasse with 953 rooms. Both hotels are making an effort to attract

the conference market with special packages. Two nights in either,

including return travel on Eurostar, accommodation, breakfast, lunch and

meeting room start from pounds 204 per person. Inter-Continental also

has two hotels, the Grand and the Inter-Continental Paris, both very

traditional in style and very popular with the British market.

Smaller venues

For smaller groups, there are several attractive hotels with meeting

facilities. Two hotels belonging to the Demeure group, the Baltimore and

the Le Parc Victor Hugo, with 105 and 115 rooms respectively, try to

attract the British market. The Victor Hugo, in the upmarket 16th

arrondissement, is like an English country house, built around an

attractive courtyard. The main meeting room takes up to 350. For small

incentive groups, the Hotel Vernet is located close to the designer

shops of the rue Faubourg St Honore and has a Michelin-starred

restaurant.

Disneyland Paris

Conference business represents 15% of Disneyland Paris’s turnover and

the improving public perception should help increase the volume.

Disneyland Paris, or Euro Disney, as it used to be called, has just

announced its first profit, pounds 14.9m, and a 21% increase in visitors

over 1993/94. When it opened, the park and its six hotels went through

bad teething problems in the conference and incentive market, with

reports of inflexible management, high prices and niggling technical

faults in the Hotel New York - the main convention property. The company

claims the situation has now been rectified. The hotel opened an

additional 2000m2 of meeting space in 1994 and around 2000 delegates can

be accommodated. The current 24-hour rate, including all meals, is

around pounds 180 per person. From June 1996, Eurostar trains will run

directly from Waterloo International to the park, which has its own

station.

Convention centres

Just inside the peripherique ring road, the Palais de Congres, one of

Europe’s largest convention centres is joined to the 970-room Hotel

Concorde Lafayette. With 50 meeting rooms, four auditoria seating up to

3700 people and 8000m2 of exhibition space, this facility is best suited

to large, high-tech events. Work is currently in progress to add another

2000m2 of exhibition space and a state of the art amphitheatre seating

570. Further out of town at La Defense, the futuristic CNIT centre seats

up to 1200 in its largest hall, with 13 smaller meeting rooms. La

Villette, a third convention centre at the Cite des Sciences science

park to the north east takes up to 1500. A new centre, le Carrousel du

Louvre, has been developed directly under the Louvre museum, hidden

below the historic buildings and the famous glass pyramid. The four

conference rooms, taking up to 1800, are popular for gala evenings and

fashion shows as well as meetings.

This article was first published on Marketing