Thailand’s marine industry unites around single yacht show

The fourth Thailand Yacht Show & RendezVous has now wrapped up with many of the exhibitors praising the new format and noting the sales and contacts made during the four day marine exhibition. The exhibit was held between January 10-13 at the Royal Phuket Marina.

Leading international yacht dealers, brokerage houses, charter agencies and marine suppliers were there to showcase their brands, complemented by luxury property developers and a collective mix of lavish lifestyle products. With a decisive show of unity, the industry’s global players joined Thailand’s key marine tourism stakeholders – including a strong attendance of representatives from national and local government – who have all thrown their support behind TYS’s 4-year mission to open up Thai waters to foreign yacht tourism and grow the industry.

“The Thai Government remain unswerving in their determination to support and grow the yachting industry, and bring much-needed cash into local businesses, by changing regulations where necessary to enable foreign superyacht charter tourism. The private sector made it clear they wanted a single show in Phuket.

“The results speak for themselves, with confirmed yacht sales, lots of business transacted by exhibitors across all sectors, and good visitor numbers over the first three days,” said Andy Treadwell, CEO of show organisers Verventia.

Richard Allen, General Manager of Simpson Marine, said, “As ever, Simpson Marine had the biggest display of new yachts at the show, representing our brands Monte Carlo Yachts, Beneteau, Lagoon, Aquilla and Sanlorenzo.

“I am pleased to say we made some sales during the show itself and have a number of other negotiations to conclude.”

Speaking about the quality of visitors this year, Andrew de Bruin, GM of Multihull Solutions said, “Multihull Solutions were very pleased to again join the Thailand Yacht Show as an exhibitor with three yachts displayed in the marina.

“The quality of visitors was top rate and our vessels received great exposure. The joining together of all the shows is a definite winner for all involved and we look forward to booking space in next year’s event at the first opportunity.”

The Thailand Yacht Show has been a key industry and government focus for changing local regulations to attract more international superyachts to the country, and results are beginning to show. Bloomberg’s latest global superyacht tracker1 recorded movements of superyachts between November 2018 and January 2019, and Thailand placed fourth as a winter destination behind Sint Maarten, St. Barts, and Antigua, welcoming an influx of superyachts during the Christmas and New Year peak season.

“The single show concept has proved to be a huge success for the industry. We will continue to work closely with the Thai government and the private sector to hopefully get the changes to the tax regulations we need, and will build on this year’s success to make 2020 even bigger and deliver a strong ROI for all parties,” added Andy Treadwell.