How Has Covid Reshaped the International Boat Show Scene?

In 2021, I visited the Cannes Yachting Festival a year after the show was postponed in the summer of 2020. That the Cannes boat show, a key event in global yacht marketing, had been shelved hit the boating world like a thunderbolt. By 2021, that all seemed like ancient history.

All that was required to enter the show was proof of your double vaccination status. Once inside, masks were required in all indoor areas, though often came off in exhibitor tents when it was time to talk business. Apart from the presence of people monitoring vaccination status and a Covid testing tent just outside the entrance, there was little evidence that year of much change. But change was certainly in the air.

During the Covid years, yacht builders aggressively adopted digital marketing tools – such as remote work capability, which had largely been ignored pre-pandemic – and focused on their online presence. During the same period, the industry saw a boom in yacht sales, starting in the second half of 2020 and gathering steam into 2021, even though all the world’s shows, except Fort Lauderdale, were shut. Most yacht sellers will admit that the main reason for the pandemic boom was that potential buyers decided that life was too short to wait on such a purchase.

So where does this leave the world’s boat shows now? While some organisers are keen to return to business as usual, others are imagining a larger scope for their shows, turning them into year-round digital entities that act as entry points into the yachting world.

Monaco Yacht Show

For the Monaco Yacht Show, the keystone event for the world’s superyacht industry, the announcement of a postponement sent shockwaves through the industry. When it became clear that the show could not take place in 2020, there was much concern. Then the event’s organisers used the opportunity to “reset” the show, says Johan Pizzardini, head of communications and media for the Monaco Yacht Show (MYS).

“Covid caused the cancellation of the yacht show, but it matched a period when the [superyacht] industry wanted the show to change,” observes Pizzardini. “Maybe without the Covid cancellation, we might not have changed the show. It’s a big machine to run, year after year, so cancelling in 2020 might have been beneficial for us.”

He says that MYS organisers used the cancellation to talk with exhibitors and find out what they wanted from the show in future. The lasting changes that have occurred at the Monaco Yacht Show occurred because of the Covid break, but are not necessarily due to Covid, Pizzardini explains.

Among the changes that MYS implemented for its show in 2021 were a tiered entrance system and a “by invitation only” day on the first day of the show. The aim was to ensure that exhibitors had a chance to meet directly with business clients with fewer distractions.

Apart from tweaks at the show, Pizzardini says the aim of the Monaco Yacht Show is to become a year-long presence in the superyacht industry, and not just a focal point for a few glamorous days in the Mediterranean. He points to an app launched by the event organisers that can help members and participants navigate the show, find the people they want to meet, and schedule meetings. Rather than being a show-only app, registered users can access it year-round to keep in touch with key industry contacts. The show also aims to promote the whole superyacht industry with digital content and explainers. This is to encourage potential buyers to get involved who may be put off by the event’s air of exclusivity.

Pizzardini says that the aim of Monaco Yacht Show’s digital outreach is to “seduce” people with the superyacht lifestyle and deliver key insights into the industry so attendees can enjoy the show without feeling confused or out of place. This kind of content-based, educational outreach to a new superyacht-buying audience will encourage a new generation of buyers to step up at the Monaco show.

Boot Düsseldorf

Not every show has gone through the same cycle as Monaco. Boot Düsseldorf, one of the world’s largest yachting events, was hit harder than most. Scheduled for the winter months – it takes place inside the enormous exhibition halls of Messe Düsseldorf – it suffered two years of postponements rather than just the one experienced by Cannes, Monaco and Genoa, all of which take place at summer’s end.

“At first, the cancellation by the country was a real shock for all of us. We were in the middle of the preparations for the fair and had to just stop them,” recalls the event’s director, Petros Michelidakis. After a false dawn in the winter of 2020-21, when vaccines were being distributed, the show had to wait longer than the others to recommence. “It became clear to all of us as early as spring 2022 that we could hold the fair in January 2023. The situation eased more and more, and the companies very soon signalled how interested they were in participating in Boot 2023,” Michelidakis says.

Boot Düsseldorf is a much broader show than that of Monaco, which is focused on the upper end of the yacht spectrum. The show features everything from large motor yachts to canoes and is a touchstone event for northern European boaters of all stripes. Michelidakis says that it wasn’t difficult for organisers to bring back exhibitors to the show, even after a two-year hiatus and the turn to digital marketing by so many yacht builders. Nor would it have been necessary, he says. “There was definitely no marked change in the way the show was run compared to the pre-pandemic 2020 event.”

Superyacht Technology Show 

Against the odds, a new show started amid Covid lockdowns. Jack Robinson, a superyacht industry and media veteran, launched the Superyacht Technology Network just before Covid struck, with the aim of creating an interested group of people focused on the engineering and technical side of owning a superyacht. The company owns and operates the annual Superyacht Technology Show and the Superyacht Technology Summit, which take place at the World Trade Center in Barcelona, Spain.

As Covid waned, Robinson decided to launch an event specifically for the people involved in superyacht technology. Starting as a small event, the concept has grown quickly and the Superyacht Technology Network recently received an investment from Will Faimatea, founder of Bond Technology Management, which does IT and audio-visual work for superyachts. Robinson says that the next edition of the Superyacht Technology Show will be held in March 2024 and be four times the size of the last one, held in January 2022.

Robinson says that key buyers in the superyacht industry, including owners, their representatives, and the engineering staff, were looking for a way to speak directly to peers and suppliers in a dedicated setting. Larger events, such as the Monaco Yacht Show, didn’t offer such focus, creating an opening. Also, in the post-Covid world, people were eager to meet again. Robinson says that his show is not really a trade show, like other yachting events, but a super networking event. There are exhibitions and stands, but these are paired with an all-day access to lunch facilities, private networking rooms and so on. By being focused on a small group and a dedicated event, Robinson is betting that the boat show model of before will change into something quite different.

Singapore Yachting Festival 

The newest show to arrive in 2023 will be the Singapore Yachting Festival (SYF). It replaces the Singapore Yacht Show, which was derailed by the pandemic in 2020. Unlike most major shows in Europe and North America, the Singapore Yacht Show couldn’t recover from the loss of an event, despite becoming a key event on the calendar for the Asian yacht industry.

Set to open on 27 April at ONE°15 Marina, SYF has been organised by Wade Pearce, formerly commercial director for the Singapore Yacht Show and now the founder of the SG Marine Guide. Pearce sees the role of the show as carrying on some of the work he’s done with ONE°15 Marina promoting the boating lifestyle, rather than just the ownership of a very expensive yacht.

“SG Marine Guide has been working closely with ONE°15 since the Covid pandemic lockdowns,” Pearce says. “One of the goals was to create more boating activities for the community, and we did this through initiatives that ONE°15 would sponsor, including Boaters Against Plastic, Christmas Light Parade, Grow Boating Singapore and the SailGP boaters after party.”

Pearce says that when Singapore started reopening after Covid, interest in starting a new yacht show or restarting the Singapore Yacht Show at ONE°15 Marina began in earnest, but nothing materialised. He explains that the new Singapore Yachting Festival will be quite different to its predecessor, which is partly due to the relatively short notice period. The show was announced less than half a year before it was due to make its debut, whereas the Singapore Yacht Show would take a year to organise. But Pearce also intends to remake the show into a more welcoming event.

“In line with the name, the Singapore Yachting Festival will offer more entertainment and activations around the marina for all types of visitors. This includes e-surfing, RHIB rides, fishing demos, dinghy sailing and an Aquabana lounge. For boat owners and potential boat owners, we will have an event calendar full of different parties and previews to attend, along with a cruising corner dedicated to inspiring people to explore the Southeast Asia region by boat.”

Pearce adds that one of the new events planned for this year’s SYF is a one-day conference on how and where owners can take their yachts in Southeast Asia. “No doubt, digitalisation during Covid was huge for the boating industry, but it has in some way made focused events more appealing to everyone because there are limitations to doing everything digitally,” Pearce says. “The ‘boating boom’ has finished somewhat, and the industry needs serious leads that they can’t get from paid advertising.”

Pearce also points out that in Asia, the boating industry is only reaching a small percentage of potential buyers, with most middle- or upper-income people seeing boating as an activity for fishermen or the ultra-rich elite “who just throw money away”. And that, says Pearce, is something that needs to change.

“We need events and promotion of the boating industry to reach this middle class, not just for buying a boat but learning about the boating lifestyle and the pathways to work in the industry.” Boat shows took a big hit in 2020, but 2023 may be the year that these iconic events become about more than just boats. We can thank Covid for that.

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