Lowestoft has one set-up day followed by a two-day boat show. Portsmouth will have one set-up day followed by a three-day boat show. At either of these events the exhibitor's staff is away from the company's base for (say) four days. London and Southampton have a week (or more) set-up time and run for ten days with exhibitors' staff away from the company's base for a fortnight.

Apart from direct exhibition costs, add on hotel accommodation, meals, travel, etc.

and there has got to come a time when attending such an exhibition becomes financially untenable.

Whether ExCeL exhibition hall in London, the new home of the London Boat Show, or the Southampton Boat Show, is to remain viable, is not for me to say, as I know nothing about the costs involved. But recent press reports indicating that the National Boat Shows (in effect the BMF) is to revamp the London Boat Show, leads me to think that to bring the London Boat Show to life using theatre, entertainment and music, as indicated in a recent press release, is not going to bring the yachting crowd in and it is not going to appeal to the potential exhibitor. Also it sounds even more expensive than present costs.

As if to prove our point about more provincial boat shows, we have already arranged (by demand of the marine leisure industry) to hold a boat show again in Portsmouth in 2007 and we are still some weeks away from this year's boat show yet!

Yours sincerely Graham Kinnersley County Exhibitions Limited