Cannes, 28 September 2026 — As the global duty free and travel retail industry arrives in Cannes for TFWA World Exhibition & Conference 2026, the Vieux Port is once again becoming an extension of the business taking place inside the Palais des Festivals.
For Bespoke Yacht Charter, it is also one of the most important weeks of the Cannes events calendar.
This year, we have two yachts on charter for TFWA: the 34-metre Sanlorenzo TINY WAVE, hosting Penfolds Wines, and the 29-metre motor yacht TALILA, chartered by Sekonda.
Both are being used as much more than places to entertain. Throughout the week they provide private, flexible spaces where meetings, hospitality and brand activity can take place within a few minutes’ walk of the Palais.
Getting to that point, however, starts many months before the first guests step aboard.
TFWA Returns to Cannes
Taking place from 27 September to 1 October, TFWA World Exhibition & Conference brings the international duty free and travel retail industry together in Cannes for five days of meetings, product launches, networking and hospitality.
The exhibition encompasses sectors ranging from wines and spirits, perfumes and cosmetics and fashion to jewellery, watches, confectionery and consumer goods. The people arriving in Cannes include brands, retailers, buyers and senior executives from airports, airlines, cruise operators and other businesses connected to international travel retail.
It makes for a particularly concentrated few days.
The exhibition itself is centred on the Palais des Festivals, but a significant amount of business inevitably spills out onto the Croisette, into the surrounding hotels and restaurants and, increasingly, onto the yachts moored in the Port of Cannes.
For companies wanting a private base during the event, a TFWA yacht charter offers something that is difficult to recreate in a conventional event venue: a space that can move easily between serious business meetings, relaxed hospitality and evening entertaining, while remaining close to the exhibition.
The yacht, though, has to be right for the job.
Eighteen Years of TFWA Yacht Charters
Bespoke Yacht Charter Senior Broker Rachel Coles has been organising yacht charters for TFWA since 2008.
That experience matters because chartering a yacht for a major Cannes event is quite different from arranging a conventional Mediterranean yacht holiday.
A beautiful yacht is obviously important, but aesthetics are only part of the decision. Rachel looks closely at how a client intends to use the yacht throughout the week: how many people need to sit comfortably for lunch, where private conversations can take place, how guests will circulate during a reception, where products will be displayed and how branding can be incorporated without overwhelming the yacht itself.
“TFWA charters are very individual,” says Rachel. “One client might need somewhere quiet and private for a succession of senior meetings, while another is planning tastings, lunches and evening events with a much larger number of guests. Usually it is a combination of several things. My job is to understand exactly what they want to achieve and then find the yacht and the setup that will make that work.”
Once the yacht has been selected, Rachel remains closely involved with the client, captain and crew throughout the planning process, alongside Bespoke Yacht Charter’s carefully selected network of suppliers in Cannes.
The details can range from menus and drinks service to furniture arrangements, flowers, signage, technical requirements and guest access. None is particularly glamorous in isolation. Collectively, they determine whether an event runs smoothly.
“By the time TFWA begins, we have normally discussed the charter in enormous detail,” Rachel explains. “The best result is when the client doesn’t have to think about any of that once their guests arrive. They should be able to concentrate on their meetings and their clients, knowing that everything behind the scenes has already been taken care of.”
TINY WAVE: A Versatile Base for Penfolds Wines
One of our two yachts at TFWA this year is the 34-metre Sanlorenzo TINY WAVE, on charter to Penfolds Wines.
Over the course of TFWA, Penfolds is using the yacht for wine tastings, business meetings, lunches and evening receptions.
It is a good illustration of why yachts work particularly well at this event. The same venue needs to feel appropriate for a relatively focused meeting during the day, a beautifully presented lunch a short while later and a considerably more sociable reception in the evening.
There is no need for guests to travel across Cannes between appointments or for the host to move between a succession of hired venues. Instead, the yacht effectively becomes the company’s home in Cannes for the duration of TFWA.
For a wine brand, there are additional considerations. Tastings and hospitality require careful coordination between the client and crew, from presentation and glassware to the timing of food and service. The surroundings need to feel special, but the focus still has to remain on the wines and the people being hosted.
This is where detailed planning with the yacht’s crew becomes particularly important.
“The crew are a huge part of a successful event charter,” says Rachel. “We work very closely with them before the event because they know their yacht better than anybody. We bring the understanding of the client, TFWA and how these corporate charters operate, and together we work out how to use the yacht at its best.”
TALILA Welcomes Sekonda to Cannes
Also on charter with Bespoke Yacht Charter for TFWA 2026 is the 29-metre motor yacht TALILA, hosting watch brand Sekonda.
At just under 30 metres, TALILA demonstrates another important aspect of yacht selection for TFWA: bigger is not automatically better.
The right yacht is the one that suits the number of guests, style of hospitality and objectives of the company using it.
For some clients, a yacht needs to accommodate a substantial evening reception. For others, the priority is a more intimate environment where clients and colleagues can meet away from the crowds of the Palais.
There is also a quality that is difficult to quantify until you have spent time at TFWA. In a week when diaries are full and delegates are moving constantly between stands, meetings and events, having a private waterfront space close to the Palais gives hosts the opportunity to slow the pace down.
A conversation over coffee on the aft deck can feel very different from another appointment on an exhibition stand.
That informality is one of the reasons yachts have become such an established part of the way business is conducted during Cannes’ major industry events.
Making the Space Work
Corporate event yachts are sometimes chosen on photographs alone. In practice, Rachel pays at least as much attention to the layout.
Where will guests naturally go when they arrive? Can someone step away for a confidential conversation? Is there enough shade during a lunchtime event? What happens if the weather changes? Can catering staff move around without interrupting guests? Where should branding be positioned so that it is visible but still feels considered?
Even the transition between different parts of the day matters.
A yacht used for breakfast meetings or presentations in the morning may need to be reset for lunch, followed by afternoon appointments and an evening reception. Crew and suppliers often have relatively small windows in which to make those changes.
“Experience teaches you to look at a yacht quite differently for an event like TFWA,” Rachel says. “I’m thinking about how people will actually use the space rather than simply whether it looks impressive. You have to imagine the yacht at different times of day, with different numbers of guests and different styles of event.”
It is one of the less visible elements of a successful TFWA yacht charter, but arguably one of the most important.
Catering Is Part of the Experience
Food and service also play an unusually important role during TFWA.
Some guests may be aboard for a formal lunch; others might arrive between meetings for 30 minutes. Evening receptions bring a different pace again, with drinks, canapés and larger numbers moving around the yacht.
The catering therefore has to fit the programme rather than the other way around.
Working with the yacht’s chef and crew, and trusted external suppliers where required, Bespoke Yacht Charter helps clients shape menus and service around the way they intend to host.
For Rachel, consistency is key. A beautifully presented yacht loses much of its impact if service is slow, guests do not know where to go or catering feels disconnected from the event.
The goal is for the hospitality to appear effortless, even when considerable planning has gone into achieving it.
Branding Without Losing the Yacht
Brand visibility is another consideration.
A yacht in the Port of Cannes during TFWA occupies valuable physical space close to one of the world’s most important travel retail gatherings. Naturally, companies want that presence to be recognisable.
But there is a balance.
Branding can include flags, cushions, signage, flowers, screens and other temporary installations, depending on the yacht and the client’s requirements. The most successful approach tends to work with the character and architecture of the yacht rather than trying to disguise it.
The yacht itself is already part of the experience.
For clients, that means thinking not simply about where a logo can be placed, but about how guests encounter the brand from the moment they arrive on the quay.
A Different Kind of Yacht Charter
After organising TFWA charters for 18 years, Rachel has seen the role of yachts at Cannes business events evolve considerably.
They remain exceptional places to entertain, but for many clients they have also become highly practical working environments.
During the course of a single day, the same yacht can function as a meeting room, private dining venue, product showcase, hospitality suite and evening event space. Between those scheduled moments, it gives a company’s team somewhere to regroup and provides clients with an escape from the intensity of the exhibition.
That versatility explains why selecting a TFWA yacht is about much more than length, styling or the number of cabins.
It is about understanding what needs to happen on board.
“After so many years at TFWA, you learn that every client has a slightly different definition of a successful week,” says Rachel. “Our role is to listen to that and build the charter around it. When everything has been planned properly, the yacht should simply work for them from morning until night.”
This week, TINY WAVE and TALILA are doing exactly that.
And as TFWA 2026 gets underway in Cannes, the two yachts offer a glimpse of what event yacht charter is really about: not simply having a presence in the harbour, but creating a space in which people genuinely want to spend time, talk and do business.
For companies considering a yacht for a future TFWA World Exhibition & Conference, Bespoke Yacht Charter provides specialist TFWA yacht charter in Cannes, from yacht selection and berthing to branding, catering, event planning and on-the-ground support throughout the week.
