This year’s Dubai International Boat Show is set to be the biggest yet and a highlight will be one of the world’s top 50 superyachts, the organisers announced yesterday.
The March event will feature the largest number of luxury boats in its 22-year history, with 30 luxury boats exceeding 21 metres on display. These will include 19 superyachts, which exceed 24 metres. Details about the largest yacht are for now being kept secret by Edmiston, the broker, in Monaco.
The show will be held at the Dubai International Marine Club from March 4 to 8. A total of 840 companies and brands will exhibit – a 12 per cent increase compared with last year — and more than 430 boats will be on display. These will include Gulf Craft’s 41-metre Majesty 135 and Sunseeker’s 24-metre sport yacht, a regional first.
The UAE now ranks ninth among the world’s top superyacht-building nations. Appetite for luxury boats is being fuelled by increasing consumer confidence. The total wealth of the Middle East’s high-net-worth individuals – those with more than US$1 million to invest – is expected to reach $3.3 trillion this year, according to the McKinsey Global Private Banking Survey 2013.
The show is expected to attract more than 26,000 visitors from more than 70 countries. Regional royalty and top buyers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE are expected to attend.
There will be exhibitors from more than 50 countries, and four country pavilions dedicated to boatmakers from Australia, Italy, the United States and Turkey. Organisers expect 26 American companies to attend, a 35 per cent increase from last year. There will also be a “UAE Inspired” pavilion.
“The UAE’s shipbuilding growth appears really unstoppable,” said Erwin Bamps, the chief operating officer of Gulfcraft, the Umm Al Quwain-based manufacturer of boats and yachts. “There is a vision for the UAE’s superyacht building industry that it will, slowly but surely, increase its output until it is one of the very top manufacturing bases for luxury yachts anywhere in the world.”
Gulfcraft is ranked as one of the world’s top 10 superyacht shipyards.
lgutcher@thenational.ae
