

We have known Olga Taran for more than ten years. A stunningly beautiful woman with a bright inner charisma, incredibly active. Today, Olga is the owner and editor-in-chief of “Hello Monaco” media company, where she talks very professionally about the life of her heroes in Monte-Carlo, and also covers all the news of Monaco online daily.
We spoke with Olga and discussed new luxury trends, the pandemic, and future projects.


Anna: My first question for you is how did Monaco survive the pandemic?
Olga: I think that Monaco, compared to the rest of the European world, survived the pandemic quite well.
Naturally, like everyone else in 2020, we were in quarantine – for almost 2.5 months. But given the fact that France and other European countries have been quarantined more than once, Monaco has no longer experienced such severe lockdowns.
We had and still have the opportunity to go out, visit restaurants, and attend cultural events, with certain restrictions, of course. But, undoubtedly, since Monaco is a very small state with only 39 thousand people, and with about 70 thousand people from France and Italy coming to work every day, the pandemic has made its adjustments to our lives. Employees who had to come to work from neighboring countries were limited in these opportunities. Even now, many areas of business prefer to work remotely as much as possible.
It’s no secret that for Monaco such spheres as the hotel business and entertainment are of great importance as a source of income for the Principality.
First of all, the hotel system suffered, for sure, because the hotels were closed for a very long time. And even after the first lockdown, the hotel business hasn’t yet reached the level it was before the pandemic.
In addition, major Monaco events such as the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters and Formula 1 have been canceled in 2020. Naturally, this had a strong impact on the state’s revenues, since usually during Formula 1, the restaurant business, catering companies, and the hotel business sector increased their profits by 30%.
As I’ve said, indeed the Grand Prix started in 1929 and still is a landmark event, which is awaited every year. Just imagine that in a country with a little less than 40 thousand citizens, 250 thousand tourists-guests would come for 4 days. Even when fully loaded, hotels usually cannot cope with such a flow. All this also indirectly affects neighboring countries, including Italy and France, where during Formula 1 all service sectors, including hotels, food, and entertainment receive additional income.
The good news is that in 2021 Monaco bounced back and held all of the planned events.


Anna: How is the country’s recovery going on now, especially in the premium and luxury segments?
Olga: The first lockdown was a severe blow to the luxury industry. I think that the same fashion industry was the first to suffer because not hardly most people were in the mood for online sales. It was a shock at first, but the whole situation nevertheless gave a strong impetus to the development of online sales technologies.
I have a lot of acquaintances among the top managers of jewelry brands in Monaco, such as Chaumet, Chanel, GRAFF, Harry Winston, Boucheron. Indeed, during the lockdown, everything “sank”, brands canceled their shows, cutting down the advertising budgets. No one wanted to invest in anything while being shocked. However, now everyone is pretty encouraged to report everything to be back to normal.
The jewelry industry’s main competitor is supposed to be the travel market. The deluxe audience spends money on vivid experiences. Buying jewelry is not always an investment, it’s more of a “pleasure”. Therefore, it is quite natural that with all kinds of travel restrictions during the lockdown, the jewelry business segment breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems to me that this is one of the reasons that explains many of them surviving the crisis year. Instead of planned expensive trips, people were switching to other pleasures, including expensive jewelry. Plus, many jewelry brands and the whole luxury fashion segment began to consider new channels of communication with their consumers thus experimenting with the audience. Brands have actively responded to the new trends of generation Z. The online presence of all jewelry brands has increased significantly. It is clear that if speaking about the “available” jewelry in the scales of up to 20 thousand euros and not about the high jewelry segment – these items can be easily bought via the Internet now. Both sales algorithms and reliable delivery models have been developed. I see everyone who rebuilds going digital, adapting, and surviving. That is, they adapt to the new rules of the game in real-time.
I suppose from the point of view of the fashion market, the fashion industry has also undergone quite serious changes. Before it worked accordingly: we made six collections a year, fashion shows around the world – the well-known algorithm. During the lockdown and pandemic, it became impossible. But for example, I regularly received invitations and enjoyed watching fashion shows from the same Chanel house, which were perfectly organized online. They just send you a link, you enjoy your time watching the show at home while communicating through the same individual Zoom conference, choosing and buying. Next, they send you your selection for fitting, and if it doesn’t fit, you send it back.


Let’s return to the situation in Monaco. I have the latest data from our Institute of Statistics, which we are constantly working with and often publishing their figures. They recently adjusted their report, which originally stated a deficit of around 114.5 million, but they ended up revising it on June 30th. This is due to the fact that the first half of the year results turned out to be very promising making it possible to reduce the deficit by 71 million, which is more than 50%. The indicators were revised due to a sharp revival of economic activity in the summer months – traditionally a high season in the Principality. It is claimed that real estate and VAT receipts, the main revenue part of Monaco’s budget, had a significant impact on the revision and on the positive dynamics.
Our summer and autumn in Monaco went off with a bang. There were many huge events: the Monte-Carlo Gala in defense of planetary health, which could well compete with AMFAR. Celebrities came to us, impressive funds were collected at an auction in support of the Prince Albert Foundation. We had the premiere of the long-awaited “Agent 007”, the Red Cross ball, we celebrated Prince’s Day – the National Day of Monaco along with other amazing events. Winter is off to a good start too. A traditional Christmas ball was held in support of Princess Charlene’s Fond. Of course, the new wave of Omicron messed up the plans a bit, but thank God, no one is up to another quarantine.
I see that according to the wide program that SBM offers for the spring (SBM is one of our largest enterprises, which owns almost the entire hotel stock), we have a busy spring and summer ahead.


Anna: My next question is therefore concerning offline. Are there any new trends in the event management? What’s going on now? What about your events?
Olga: Naturally, the pandemic leaves its mark anyway, simply because the event managers have certain requirements that they try not to violate, as the event can simply be closed.
Actually now in order to attend any event, of course, you need to be vaccinated. If you have a certificate, it solves all problems. Of course, the seating arrangement has become smaller, there are fewer people. But I think it’s understandable that not everyone is yet ready to attend such events. Because the pandemic has affected people in different ways: some are still at home and do not go out much. And there are quite a few of them. Even among my very good acquaintances of wealthy people, there are a lot who live in a similar model. It is clear it may not be the complete isolation, nevertheless, they try not to leave home unnecessarily.
I would say that this summer relaxed everyone a bit, but now there is another wave of the new omicron. Although Monaco has a very high vaccination rate, I emphasize once again: we are very dependent on our neighbors. We have a country of 2 square kilometers: step to the right, step to the left – you are already in France. Or 20 km – and you are in Italy. Therefore, we need not only to follow our own rules but also to look at our neighbors, what is happening there.
Returning to offline events, I want to note the number of creative solutions found! For example, in London, Burberry shows took place in the forest, where the models walked along the beaten paths in their own air. This is amazingly creative. Many brands have realized that they don’t have to organize a crazy race for six collections a year. The term sustainability has firmly entered our lives with the pandemic. Now if you want to be in trend to be sold, you need to follow the path of sustainability and environmental friendliness. Therefore, now designers have another opportunity to be creative. And in this area, there also are certain trends. For example, it was announced at the Copenhagen Fashion Week that only “sustainable” brands using at least 50% of clothes made from “sustainable” materials can participate.
I think the audience has changed as well, as now we’re all mainly talking about online sales for Generation Z, younger and more progressive. I think the position taken by the brand is really important for this generation. The audience says they are ready to pay more if items are made from recycled materials compared to those having a negative impact on the environment.
The story is also quite interesting for the jewelry sphere. They argue that during the first lockdown, people were trapped emotionally, being locked at home, so that they could not celebrate their memorable dates, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, for instance. During that period an interesting trend appeared in the jewelry industry: for example, people began to upgrade their wedding rings. For their tenth wedding anniversary, let’s say, they planned to go on a trip, which appeared to be impossible, so instead of the trip, they upgraded their three-carat to five carats in order to somehow please their other half.
During the lockdown period, when everything was closed, but relaxations had just begun, creative jewelry houses were organizing small parties with champagne and caviar for their clients in boutiques. It was a place where you could meet with friends for coffee, a glass of champagne – to relax, chat, and see what else is interesting in the boutique. And as we know for sure – a good mood significantly increases purchasing power. At that time, we constantly met in boutiques: either in Graff or in Chaumet, Boucheron. Naturally, jewelry brands organized these events for a very small number of people. It somehow brightened up the period when we were deprived of all kinds of entertainment.


Anna: I was partially experiencing a lockdown in Geneva, and it was scary. For Switzerland and the luxury industry, it was the first such serious crisis in the entire history of the country. I watch with interest how the country and the luxury watch and jewelry segments are recovering at a rapid pace.
Olga: On the contrary, I spent the entire lockdown in Dubai, starting March 16 and until May 25. But we were limited to the territory of the hotel for only three weeks. In my opinion, Dubai made the right decision quite quickly – to live in the circumstances offered.
We all understand that, unfortunately, COVID won’t disappear, it will be with us forever. We must make a willful decision to move forward, realizing we will suffer from this disease as we had from the flu before. Yes, it may be more complex, more selective, because its general operating mechanism is still not clear. For example, in France, there are now a huge number of cases, more than 4,000 per day, and it is reported that more than 80% of the population has been vaccinated. And yet! We must learn to live with it!


Anna: What are your plans for the nearest future? It is clear that now it is difficult to guess, but if looking at the overall world picture optimistically?
Olga: To be honest, I am very optimistic, as all my “old friends”, jewelry brands, have returned to our media company.
Hello Monaco is an expensive magazine, and so is the pricing policy, so not every brand can afford to be advertised. Therefore, for me, the jewelry and luxury segments are so important. We have been working for quite a long time and brands trust us: we have developed great and strong partnerships.
Monaco is a very specific country with slightly different game rules. Local brands do not have such large budgets to afford any global advertising volumes. So, of course, the main advertisers are the big houses, which have their main head offices in either Paris or New York, and they see Monaco as a luxury and prestigious representation.
Certainly, I don’t think that sales in Monaco can compare with sales in Paris or New York. It is simply unrealistic due to the small size of the principality. Therefore, I see how local brands have become more active so that now we are conducting many negotiations on cooperation.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has affected our established distribution network of the magazine. Many locations stopped purchasing the magazine due to the health crisis. Now we have to restore the network. What does it mean? We are once again starting negotiations with many of our partners agreeing on how to build the distribution network. It’s good that our longtime private aviation partners like Signature Flight Aviation and Sirius AERO are flying even more than before the pandemic as their service has accumulated demand during the lockdown. Therefore, Hello Monaco is available on private boards and in the lounges of private terminals.
However, this year we have good news. We have the winter season when we go to Courchevel, 3 Valleys, Megeve, and so on. In the summer, we are in St. Tropez as usual. Naturally, we do not exclude our traditional distribution network “Monaco – Cote d’Azur”. We are starting distribution again in London, Switzerland. We are also engaged in building a distribution network in Moscow, as there is such a request.


Anna: Come to Dubai!
Olga: Of course, we have such plans. The UAE is a very interesting potential market for us.
We realized firstly that traditionally for Monaco, Dubai is a popular travel destination: we have a direct flight from Nice to Dubai. Secondly, Monegasques traditionally move for winter holidays, especially February, the velvet season.
In addition, Dubai has certainly done a lot in terms of tax breaks: the tax regimes in Monaco and Dubai have a lot in common. Therefore, I think it would be interesting for us to develop relations between Monaco and Dubai. I know that the locals of the UAE love Monaco very much, they like to stay here and relax, especially in summer.
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