MICE Geography, Sochi: how to take your business to Olympic heights

ABT-ACTE Russia educational session of the «MICE Geography» series took place in Renaissance Moscow Monarch Centre on November 10. The event that was held in the form of a business breakfast was devoted to Sochi. Corporate buyers learned a lot about the opportunities the region offered for employee getaways, certain features of new hotels and their facilities, had a chance to see with their own eyes how the resort had changed and studied nuances of passenger air travel.

The educational session gathered administrative and travel managers, department managers, heads of business travel and corporate event departments of Leroi Merlin Vostok, BNS Group, Reynaers Aluminium Rus, Colgate-Palmolive, Bayer, Covidien, Here, Nissa Centrum etc. Partners of the event were Planet Sochi Tourism Union — the largest tour operator of the Black Sea coast, Interstate Hotels & Resorts — one of the leaders of hospitality industry and OnJet, business aviation service provider. Sales director of Renaissance Moscow Monarch Centre Rushana Akhmodeeva personally greeted all the participants.

The topic of the session was well-timed. Due to the rise in dollar and euro rates many companies have started contemplating Russian destinations for their MICE events. «Facilities that have appeared recently, high service level, mild subtropical climate, a short flight and the absence of visa barriers together with reasonable prices attract more and more corporate travellers to Sochi», general director of Planet Sochi Tourism Union Ellina Akinshina said. She started her speech with a video demonstrating panoramas of New Sochi. «After the Olympics the city has changed beyond recognition. Holiday fireworks are over, but there is a lot left — new highways and junctions, five new railway stations, a high speed railway from the coast to the mountains, a modern airport, the renewed city façade and 992 hotels with a total of 60 thousand rooms, 24 thousand of which have appeared for the last two years.»

According to the speaker, nowadays Sochi offers its guests 160 three star hotels, 47 four star and 22 five star hotels, not to mention numerous hotels and mini hotels of 1-2 star category. It is remarkable that such world brands as Radisson, Rixos, Solis, Pullman, Mercure, Hyatt, Marriott have opened their hotels in the city, which has raised service to the international level. Elina Akinshina also touched upon the problem of catering, saying that its quality had increased greatly, it had become more diverse and delicate under the surveillance of the best chefs of the world — from Austria, Italy, France and other countries. This fact expands opportunities for holding banquets, standing receptions, business lunches and other events.

More than 300 MICE venues are available for conferences, forums, congresses, exhibitions, corporate holidays of any degree of complexity and with an unlimited number of guests. The expert drew everyone’s attention to the fact that the region offered exceptional facilities for various teambuilding programs: mountain jeeping and horse journeys, rope courses with trolleys and extreme Sky Park with the longest suspension bridge in the world, via ferrata, canyoning, skiing, yachting, adventure quests.

Ms Akinshina stressed that Sochi was an all-year-round resort, remarkable with its complexity and opportunity to combine activities that the sea and the mountains can offer. «And if your aim is to build a team of soul mates and to take your business to Olympic heights, we are ready to help you do it, because Sochi is more than MICE», the speaker added.

More detailed information on Gorky Gorod in Krasnaya Polyana was provided by business development director of Interstate Hotels & Resorts in Russia and the CIS Elvira Tarasenko and her colleague, key account manager Dmitry Korotchenko. The speakers were acquainted with all the nuances of Gorky Gorod firsthand: Interstate Hotels & Resorts runs four hotels of this two level resort.

The lower city located at the height of 540 metres above the sea level is a Lifestyle category sector with restaurants, night clubs, boutiques, a five storey mall and a congress centre Gorky Gorod Congress with the capacity of up to 2000 persons. Next to it is luxurious Marriott Krasnaya Polyana with 468 rooms and a huge spa complex of 2000 sq. metres. Affordable 3 star Gorki Plaza is right next to the ski lift. The experts noted that small corporate groups that stay at the hotel will find everything they may need for leisure as well as for work — the hotels offer banquet and conference halls that are suitable for seminars, presentations and various holidays.

«What the incentive event will be like depends solely on the corporate spirit», Ms Tarasenko stressed. «For example, if a company is planning a holiday in an informal atmosphere, in summer we can offer a corporate barbeque party or a pool Caribbean party in the huge yard of Marriott Krasnaya Polyana instead of a gala dinner with tables and evening wear. You can arrange any type of event — everything depends on time, budget and requirements of the company».

Tamara Tursunova, head of logistics department of ANO Sports Broadcasting, a Russian TV production company that was established to cover the winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, shared her experience in accommodating tourist groups in Sochi and its suburbs in 2011-2014. TV broadcasters started testing their equipment and facilities there earlier at large competitions like the European Cup in alpine skiing in 2011, the World Cup in ski jumping in 2012 etc. The company had to accommodate more than 600 persons — directors, cameramen, sound producers, engineers, commentators and many others.

According to the rules of sport federations, mass media representatives are to be accommodated separately from athletes, and not at the same hotel, that is why TV employees were the first to try living at hotels that had just been put into operation, because the future champions had to be offered tried and tested hotels. «And if in 2011 there were almost no hotels available, groups of 20-30 persons of our team lived in several hotels in Adler and Krasnaya Polyana, it took not more than three years to create all the necessary facilities for the Olympics, which allowed to accommodate 30 thousand mass media representatives only in the coastal cluster» Ms Tursunova described the striking changes.

Igor Semenchenko, senior specialist in private aircraft rental of OnJet spoke about passenger air travel during the events. The expert specified advantages and drawbacks of individual tickets and group rates and paid attention to the nuances of charter and regular flights: «As for charter flights, you only have an opportunity to choose the time of the flight and the service you want to have on board, for example, you can change your meals or the number of flight attendants, brand lunch boxes, headrests and many other things». The expert strongly recommended setting the date and time of the flight in advance, because approvals of the airport of departure and arrival, the Federal Air Transport Agency and foreign services (if the flight destination is abroad) are necessary.

According to the speaker, there are three types of charter flights. The first type is a corporate flight on big planes. The second is air travel by VIP planes for up to 19 persons. An aircraft like that with a higher level of service and comfort can have a shower and a double bed and is suited for long-distance flights of top management (a kind of a flying limousine). The third charter type is a helicopter, it is more convenient for flights hat do not exceed 300 kilometres and is the best solution for transfers from the airport to Krasnaya Polyana or the neighbouring towns and villages that are difficult to get to by other means of transport because of the specific landscape.

Mr Semenchenko spoke in detail about what you should pay attention to when you conclude a charter agreement. For example, you should include the price of the charter in it, as well as special terms, in particular, the services that the price includes. Thus, anti-ice protection services are frequently not included into the price, because they are provided if necessary, when the ambient temperature is zero or below zero. But such service will definitely greatly affect the total price of the charter.

«The price does not often include a possible landing at a destination alternate aerodrome in case of adverse meteorological conditions. If the plane lands there for safety reasons, and not on the initiative of the airline, additional costs of fuel and service are shifted to the customer in full, although sometimes airlines are ready to reimburse half of them. The second variant is preferable, of course, for the corporate buyer, that is why it should be discussed beforehand and included into the agreement», the speaker added.

Participants of the session also shared their opinions and professional experience. Marketing communication manager of Reynaers Aluminium Rus Victoria Nikolaeva stressed that it was very important to know the exact number of passengers when you order a charter flight: «For example, if you have 70 travelling employees, you order a plane for 100 persons and see what the price per person is. But if you book a plane for 100 persons and then it turns out, that only 20 employees are going to travel, the price per person increases greatly.» Besides, Ms Nikolaeva said that their company had not had any events in New Sochi, but was planning to take their management or customers there.

By the way, some participants of the session will have a chance to personally get acquainted with the facilities and the new opportunities of Sochi that were discussed at the seminar. At the end of the event the representatives of Interstate Hotels & Resorts held a quiz and raffled off two vouchers for a stay at Gorki Panorama for two persons each — infrastructure and purchase manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia Olga Gadzhieva and head of department of the administrative office of GK ARMO Nadejda Polischuk will spend weekends at this hotel. And the main prize, a weekend at Marriott Krasnaya Polyana went to Anna Turchanskaya, head of administrative department of BNS Group.

«Our company has taken active part in the construction of the Olympic Village, and we are very proud of our company, out athletes and our country in general», Ms Polischuk admitted. «I hope I will inspect the hotels in the near future and of course arrange a corporate event for our employees and partners of our company in such a magnificent place».

«PwC was the informational partner of the Olympics and helped organize, hold and close the Games. This is why the team that was there fully appreciated all the facilities of Sochi. Whether our other employees will appreciate them or not is a matter for the future», Ms Gadzhieva said.

«Today a lot has been said about hotels, but even a simple walk around Sochi is such a pleasure, because the nature is magnificent!» senior manager of the Russian representative office of CRDF Global Tamara Budnik said. «I was in Sochi a long time ago and it would be very interesting to see how it has changed».

Natalia Travova