More foreign exhibitors and new spaces for the Nautico 2024

The sixty-fourth edition of the Salone will see the presence of three ministers (Salvini, Urso and Musumeci). The brands exhibited will be 1,052 and 1,030 boats on display, along an exhibition route that runs over 220 thousand square meters between land and water areas with 85% of outdoor spaces

Genoa – Spaces in growth, more foreign exhibitors and the novelty of the old Palasport, completely refurbished within the Waterfront designed by Renzo Piano, which will be the entrance door and ticket office, as it had been until a few years ago. The sixty-fourth edition of the Genoa Boat Show, from 19 to 24 September, will open with a series of news and in a framework that in 2023 has seen the turnover of the Italian boat grow again double digit, for the seventh consecutive year and increase employment. It will also mark the date of the change of the historic logo of the Boat Show and the start of the campaign “We are made of sea”.

To inaugurate it there will be three ministers: the vice premier and minister of Infrastructures and transports, Matteo Salvini, Adolfo Urso Enterprises and made in Italy, that the previous day, always in Genoa, will cut the ribbon of the new Tower pilots and Nello Musumeci, Policies of the sea.

The brands exhibited will be 1,052, 1,030 boats on display, along an exhibition route that winds 220 thousand square meters between land and water areas with 85% of outdoor areas. In all five thousand square meters more than 2023, which will host over a hundred new products and more than 30 world premieres. And the number of foreign exhibitors is also growing, which in this edition only in the production segment increase by 23 units.

“Scenographic and full of content because the best brands will come to invest in Genoa” – emphasizes the president of Confindustria Nautica Saverio Cecchi, also announcing that “Palazzo Chigi has just released the consent to the text of the Regulation implementing the Code of boating, it has just been adopted the last decree that makes operational the new simplified professional title for the charter by pleasure”.

The exact figures on the development of the Italian nautical sport in 2023 will be official only on the day of the inauguration, but at the presentation today in Genoa Marina Stella, general manager of Confindustria Nautica, has anticipated “It’s the seventh consecutive year of double-digit growth in Italian boating, a robust and solid growth of which we are proud. Both turnover and employment have grown. On turnover there is a double digit confirmed, which was our goal but we did not think to achieve. On employment we will tell you”.

In 2022, total turnover reached a record 7.3 billion, and 2023 is a step up. “Even if the emotional boost after Covid has failed, the growth numbers remain at double digits, suggesting that the wave of new entries in the world of boating has not been – mostly – transient, fleeting. The number of people who have come to this world has undoubtedly increased, the average age of boat users has fallen, and the ability to spend money on new customers is substantial”, adds Andrea Razeto, president of I Nautical Shows, the society of Nautical Industry Confindustria that organizes the Genoa Boat Show.

“On a total of 626 billion total export in 2023 the nautical section, diporto more ships, has sold abroad for beyond 9 billion euros. As for recreational and sports boats, exports amounted to 4 billion, up 16% on 2022 and 74% on 2019 – explains Matteo Zoppas, president of Agenzia Ice, who spoke at the presentation they attended, among others, also the deputy minister to Infrastructures and Transports Edoardo Rixi, the mayor of Genoa Matteo Bucci and the president of the Chamber of commerce Luigi Attanasio -. The first months of 2024 confirm the positive trend with an export growth between January and May of 15%”.

In 2023, the global leadership in Italian superyacht production recorded +21% compared to the previous year with 51% of global orders. “One boat out of two in the world’s seas is made in Italy” says Razeto, who also explains how the 2024 Boat Show will be presented to visitors with most of the new Watefront designed by Renzo Piano completed (only the hotel is missing): the new Palasport will be the entrance to the event and boats will also be displayed along the canals around the island of the Blue Pavilion. “I think it will be one of the things that will amaze you the most” concludes Razeto.

FONT: SHIP MAG – MONICA ZUNINO 09/02/2024