Boating World this month reported a successful first ever ‘Boating Bonanza’ at the company’s headquarters in Cape Town where invited guests were able to get up close and personal with the latest boats on offer. The event is modelled on earlier marketing initiatives and is likely to become a regular occasion on the Cape Town Boating company’s calendar.
“We had a good response on our first day and looking forward to today,” confirmed Boating World chief executive Derrick Levy. “We have to be proactive.”
The weekend event garnered significant interest from serious buyers scouting for Jeanneau sailing yachts, Fountaine Pajot catamarans, co-ownership investments, and the company’s brokerage yachts.
Levy told SABBEX he believed the boating industry should pay special attention to specific growth areas, and two in particular: marinas and the boating market further afield in Africa. He said South Africa’s marina infrastructure was slipping behind, even compared with some of its African neighbours such as Angola: “Our Marina infrastructure requires modernisation . Angola has more leisure boat marinas than us .” He singled out East London as an ideal location for an up-market marina able to compete with the world’s best. “That would attract wealthy people to the Garden Route just as a boating destination. There are fantastic locations for marinas in East London,” Levy said.
The Cape Town V&A Waterfront was another potential marina goldmine, particularly for large super-yachts, which it does not cater for as extensively as it could, Levy said. “The biggest growing field in boating is mega yachts, and the mega-rich need somewhere new to go. Where better than Cape Town?”
He said future market growth could also be driven by increasing African boat ownership. “We really need to grow the African market of boating – it’s a big emerging market,” Levy said. “We need to grow interest and increase ownership to create a vibrant African coastline of luxury boating destinations”