MAPIC Cannes 2026

For two intense days every early November, Cannes becomes the working capital of the global retail real estate, food & beverage and leisure industries. MAPIC — the international market for retail real estate, run by RX (Reed Exhibitions) and the autumn counterpart to MIPIM — brings around 4,000 participants from 75 countries through the Palais des Festivals: the major shopping-centre operators (Klepierre, URW, Mercialys, Hammerson, ECE, Sonae Sierra), the retail real estate developers and asset managers, 1,800+ brands looking for store locations (fashion, beauty, lifestyle, sport, electronics), the international F&B chains and franchise concepts, the leisure operators (cinemas, family-entertainment centres, indoor sport), and the proptech and retail-tech platforms. The exhibition floor spans 12,000+ square metres with 160 exhibitors and a 50-session conference programme; the wider opening, partner and country-pavilion calendar fills the two evenings.

The 2026 edition runs Tuesday 3 – Wednesday 4 November 2026 — just two working days, 09:00 to 19:00 (the shortest of the Cannes corporate calendar). The exhibition takes place inside the Palais des Festivals on the Croisette — the same building used for Cannes Film Festival in May, Cannes Lions in June, MIPIM in March, MIPCOM in October, TFWA in late September, and ILTM in early December. What makes MAPIC distinctive is the speed of the week: two days of back-to-back conference and floor meetings, two evenings of hospitality. Charter clients running MAPIC programmes typically book a four-to-five-day yacht charter to cover the Monday-evening welcome arrivals, the two working days, the Tuesday-and-Wednesday hosted-evening programmes, and a Thursday or Friday close.

The page below is built around how a charter client should actually approach the week: whether to charter a yacht as a shopping-centre operator’s hospitality venue for hosted-brand dinners (the classic MAPIC use case — a major landlord hosting its target retail tenants and F&B partners), as a retail brand’s hospitality space for landlord and developer meetings, or as your senior delegation’s base for the parallel meeting calendar. Early November on the Riviera is a softer-shoulder window than MIPCOM — daytime highs in the mid-teens, sea temperature still 17–19°C, evenings cool enough that the upper-deck cocktail moment moves indoors past the aperitif, but warm enough that the year-round Croisette restaurant scene operates at autumn pace.

The first reason retail real estate teams book yachts at MAPIC is the most direct one: MAPIC is fundamentally a landlord-and-brand hospitality week, and the yacht is the format the major shopping-centre operators use to host their highest-priority retail-tenant and F&B-operator relationships across the two working evenings. The exhibition floor at the Palais runs 09:00–19:00 across the Tuesday and Wednesday; the hosted-tenant evening programme runs from 19:30 onwards across the Croisette’s hotel suites, the beach clubs, and the Bay of Cannes yacht row. For Klepierre, URW, Mercialys, Hammerson, ECE, Sonae Sierra and their peers, the yacht-hosted retail-tenant dinner is a recognised cornerstone of the MAPIC week — particularly for the major luxury-mall and prime-shopping-destination accounts. A 30-metre superyacht on Vieux Port hosting 12–20 hosted retail-tenant guests across two evenings is a standard MAPIC pattern.

The second reason is the inverse audience: retail brand groups and F&B operators use the yacht as their hospitality venue for hosted-landlord and -developer meetings. A major fashion or beauty group looking to negotiate prime-mall positioning across multiple European and Middle Eastern shopping-centre portfolios, or an F&B franchise concept negotiating multi-site rollout deals, can host the senior landlord delegations on the yacht across one or both evenings — a controllable, brandable, on-water venue separate from the Palais noise and the hotel-bar circuit.

The third reason is what the yacht delivers across MAPIC’s compressed two-day format. The main saloon is your private brand-presentation room, the upper deck is your aperitif and short-pitch venue, the dining saloon seats 12–24 hosted guests for a custom-menu dinner, the swim platform and aft deck handle the after-dinner cocktail crowd. The on-board chef plans the menu around the brand or portfolio story; the on-board stewardess team manages the timed-arrivals service; and the yacht itself is brandable with floral, table-décor and signage. This format compresses neatly into MAPIC’s two-day rhythm: arrivals welcome Monday evening, hosted dinner Tuesday evening, hosted dinner Wednesday evening, close-out Thursday.

The fourth reason is the early-November Riviera context. MAPIC sits inside the wider Cannes corporate calendar — three weeks after MIPCOM, four weeks before ILTM. The same yacht can be booked across MAPIC + ILTM as a paired autumn-into-winter Cannes corporate programme, or across MAPIC + MIPIM in March of the following year as the retail-real-estate-and-general-real-estate pair. Early November rates on the Bay of Cannes are softer than MIPCOM’s late October window and significantly softer than the summer-event peaks — the Riviera fleet is heading into winter refit but the year-round professional charter yachts remain available for hospitality work.

MAPIC’s booking window is structurally similar to MIPCOM’s — the major shopping-centre operators commit the headline yachts nine-to-twelve months ahead, and the secondary tier of mid-size yachts fills through the six-month window. The compressed two-day MAPIC format means fewer brand groups run yacht hospitality than at TFWA or MIPCOM, so demand pressure is meaningfully lower — but the headline Vieux Port berths still go to the most-prepared bookers.

Practical booking timeline for the 2026 MAPIC week:

• Nine to twelve months out (Feb–May 2026): The window in which the major shopping-centre operators (Klepierre, URW, Mercialys, Hammerson, ECE, Sonae Sierra) and the largest retail brand groups commit the headline yachts — typically 25–40 metre motor yachts with the saloon, dining and deck capacity to host 12–20 hosted retail-tenant or hosted-landlord guests across the two MAPIC evenings. Boatcrowd’s pre-MAPIC inventory in this segment is typically committed by the previous late spring.
• Six to nine months out (May–August): The window for the mid-tier yachts — 20–30 metres, the right size for a smaller brand or landlord delegation hosting a single dinner per evening or a closed-room meeting calendar. Vieux Port and Port Canto MAPIC-week berths are typically locked in by this stage.
• Three to six months out (August–October): Last realistic window for the headline yachts; pricing firms up. Remaining inventory tends to be smaller motor yachts and yachts running quiet shoulder-season programmes that take MAPIC as an event week.
• Inside three months: More workable than for most Riviera event weeks — MAPIC’s compressed two-day format and smaller hospitality footprint mean late availability is more common than at MIPCOM or TFWA. Anchorage in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette is free and unrestricted; the yacht itself is the harder commitment, and the active winter Riviera fleet narrows through October-November.

The Bay of Cannes has the deepest concentration of yacht infrastructure on the French Riviera after Antibes. The two Croisette ports sit inside the MAPIC conference footprint itself; everything else is a short cruise. Anchoring in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette is free and unrestricted across the year, including MAPIC week, which gives a yacht-based hospitality programme more flexibility than the equivalent hotel-banqueting alternative.

Vieux Port (Cannes Old Port) — the working-yacht row

The original Cannes harbour and the natural location for the headline MAPIC-hosting yachts. Vieux Port sits a five-minute walk from the Palais des Festivals — close enough that hosted retailers or landlords stepping out of an exhibition-hall meeting can be on the yacht within minutes for an aperitif or hosted dinner. The yachts moor stern-to along the quays at Quai Saint-Pierre and Quai Laubeuf. Inside-port berths during MAPIC week are the most valuable hospitality positions on the Croisette — the major shopping-centre operators commit these nine-to-twelve months ahead. Vieux Port handles yachts up to roughly 70 metres alongside on the outer quays.

Port Pierre Canto — superyacht segment

The newer marina at the eastern end of La Croisette, a fifteen-minute walk from Vieux Port and the Palais. Port Canto handles motor yachts to 95 metres on its outer pontoons. The eastern Croisette location is slightly further from the Palais but well-positioned for the headline hotels at the eastern end of La Croisette (Carlton, Martinez, Majestic) where many MAPIC senior delegations base. Larger MAPIC-hosting superyachts (the 50m+ class) take Port Canto rather than Vieux Port for the extra alongside metres.

Anchorage — Bay of Cannes / off La Croisette

The standard cost-efficient option during MAPIC. Anchor in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette (depths 8–25 metres, good holding) and tender into Quai Saint-Pierre at Vieux Port. Free of charge, unrestricted, and where many mid-sized MAPIC hosting yachts spend the week. Tender shuttle takes 5–10 minutes. Early-November water is too cold for swimming so the anchorage operates as a working hosting base rather than a swim platform. In stronger Mistral or south-easterly conditions, yachts may reposition to Port Vauban Antibes or take shelter behind Île Sainte-Marguerite.

Port Vauban — Antibes, French Riviera

The largest yacht marina on the French Riviera, 15 nautical miles east of Cannes. Port Vauban handles superyachts to 165 metres on its deep-water IYCA pontoon. The standard alternative when the Croisette is full or when Mistral conditions favour the more-sheltered Antibes basin — about a forty-minute cruise into the Bay of Cannes or a thirty-minute drive (closer to an hour during MAPIC-week traffic). Working teams using the yacht as off-Croisette base often run Antibes-Cannes by road transfer each morning and bring hosted guests back to the yacht for the evening programme.

Port Gallice & Marina Baie des Anges — Juan-les-Pins, Cagnes-sur-Mer

Two practical smaller marinas between Cannes and Nice. Port Gallice in Juan-les-Pins is a 25-minute drive from La Croisette and handles yachts to 50 metres on its outer pontoon. Marina Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet handles up to 50 metres and is the closest substantial marina to Nice airport — useful for hosted-tenant or landlord arrivals and departures across the two compressed MAPIC days.

MAPIC sits inside the wider Cannes corporate calendar, five weeks after MIPCOM closes and four weeks before ILTM opens. The natural pattern for many MAPIC charter clients is to combine the week with one of the adjacent Cannes corporate events — or to use MAPIC as a single-event short charter window inside a quieter early-November Riviera programme.

• MIPCOM (12-15 October 2026). Three weeks before MAPIC. The same yacht can host MIPCOM client hosting 12-15 October, run a quiet two-week shoulder-season programme on the Riviera, then return to the Bay of Cannes for MAPIC 3-4 November. One yacht, two event weeks, two different industries (TV and retail real estate).
• ILTM Cannes (30 November – 3 December 2026). Four weeks after MAPIC. The longer pair — MAPIC 3-4 November, a quiet late-autumn cruising window, ILTM hospitality late November-early December, then potentially onwards to a transatlantic delivery for a Caribbean Christmas-NYE charter. The full late-autumn corporate-cluster programme.
• Monaco year-end programme. A 40-minute cruise east of Cannes — Port Hercule is open year-round and Monaco runs through autumn into the winter social-calendar build-up. A natural post-MAPIC weekend extension before the yacht enters winter refit or repositions onwards.
• Lérins Islands — Sainte-Marguerite & Saint-Honorat. Fifteen minutes’ cruise from the Croisette. In November the islands are essentially empty of summer traffic; the wooded paths are walkable and the Saint-Honorat monastery’s autumn programme (wine, lunch, Vespers) runs throughout the month. The natural Sunday-of-MAPIC-week lunch venue for a smaller hosted group.
• Cap d’Antibes coastline. Port Vauban Antibes is year-round; the wider Cap d’Antibes is structurally quiet in November (the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc closed for the season by late October) but the coastline anchorages off the Cap and the wider Juan-les-Pins curve work as quiet on-water bases for the bookended weekends.
• Saint-Tropez and Italian Riviera. Largely closed by November — most of the headline restaurants, beach clubs and hotels shut from late October through Easter. Practical only as brief reposition stops for charters running west toward winter refit at La Ciotat or east toward Portofino / Genoa.

Early November is past the closing of the headline Cap d’Antibes seasonal restaurants (Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc has typically closed for the season by late October) and the Croisette beach restaurants. The Cannes-proper dining set narrows to the year-round Croisette-hotel restaurants and the city-centre institutions that operate through the winter. The rooms below are the MAPIC-week anchors — all open year-round and well-known to retail real estate and brand-group delegations. Reservations should be made at the time of charter booking.

MAPIC’s 09:00–19:00 exhibition schedule means post-conference cocktails start at 19:30 across the Croisette hotel bars and the Bay of Cannes yacht row. The bars below are the standing post-meeting venues; the brand- or landlord-hosted yacht aperitif is where many of the MAPIC evenings actually begin.

MAPIC’s compressed two-day format means the hosted-dinner calendar is intense and tightly-scheduled. Most senior delegations are in for the Tuesday-Wednesday working programme plus the bookend evenings; departures begin Thursday morning. The list below covers the standing late venues across the MAPIC week.

• Yacht-hosted landlord-to-tenant dinners. The single most concentrated MAPIC evening format. Major shopping-centre operators and retail brand groups run hosted-tenant or hosted-landlord dinners on the yacht across the two working evenings — pre-dinner cocktails on the upper deck, hosted multi-course dinner in the saloon, brand or portfolio programme woven through the menu and service. Boatcrowd’s clients hosting on the yacht arrange custom catering, branded décor, and dedicated guest-list management through our concierge.
• The official MAPIC evening programme. RX runs an official opening reception (typically Monday evening before the show opens) and a Tuesday-evening networking event. Most MAPIC attendees pass through one or both; exhibitors can request tickets through the organiser.
• Croisette hotel-bar circuit. Martinez, Majestic, Carlton and Grand Hôtel cocktail bars operate as the unofficial post-dinner MAPIC meeting venues from 22:00 onwards. Most senior landlord and brand-group leadership rotate through one or two of these across the two working evenings.
• Bâoli Cannes. The defining Cannes nightclub — harbour-front, just east of Vieux Port. November operations are quieter than the summer-event peaks but the club remains open and runs through MAPIC week. Tables work through the hotel concierge or your charter team.
• Casino Croisette & Casino Barrière Le Croisette. The two Cannes casinos run year-round programmes — Casino Barrière’s Salon Privé and the Casino Croisette gaming floors provide a quieter late-evening alternative to the nightclub circuit. Dress codes are enforced; passport required for entry.
• Off-Croisette dinner programme. Some senior MAPIC dinners run off the Croisette — particularly inland at Mougins, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and the Cap d’Antibes year-round rooms still open in November — with the yacht as the return base for a nightcap and continued discussion.

MAPIC sits in early November — structurally softer than MIPCOM’s late October window on the Cannes corporate calendar. The smaller hospitality footprint (fewer brand groups running yacht programmes than at TFWA or MIPCOM) keeps the event-premium pressure modest, and the underlying November shoulder rates are softer than September or October. MAPIC-week rates typically run 1.3–1.7× the equivalent yacht’s standard November shoulder rate — the softest event premium of the Cannes corporate calendar after ILTM’s December winter window.

Standard French Riviera charters include the yacht, full professional crew (captain, mate, chef, full stewardess and deck team), comprehensive insurance, and use of all on-board equipment and tenders. Most charters include the marina berth at the embarkation port; MAPIC-week Vieux Port or Port Canto berths are typically charged separately and command a meaningful premium over standard French Riviera November marina rates. Tender shuttle into Cannes from anchored or Antibes-based yachts is included as standard.

Additional costs are APA (typically 30–35% of the charter rate during MAPIC — hosted-tenant cocktail service, hosted-dinner catering, wine pairings, branded elements), French VAT (20% on French-flagged charters in French waters), and a recommended crew gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of the charter. Custom multi-course tasting menus by the yacht chef, additional waitstaff and bar staff for hosted dinners, branded floral and table décor, AV equipment for portfolio or brand presentations, and guest-list management are charged through APA or arranged separately depending on scale. Most MAPIC hosting clients brief the yacht chef on a specific brand- or portfolio-story menu — ideally six to eight weeks ahead.

MAPIC sits inside the wider Cannes corporate calendar — five weeks after MIPCOM closes and four weeks before ILTM opens. The same yacht can be booked across MIPCOM (12-15 October) + MAPIC (3-4 November) + ILTM (30 November - 3 December) as a single autumn-into-winter Cannes corporate programme — or any pair on a shorter combined run. For brand groups running the wider annual Cannes corporate calendar, MAPIC also pairs naturally with MIPIM (March) on a sister-event basis as the two real-estate Cannes events. Boatcrowd’s brokerage team manages these multi-event programmes regularly; the yacht is the constant, the events change.