The industry working together?
There are a couple of US initiatives that have just been announced that you might want to keep your eye on.
Both have the potential to bring significant change to our industry, one immediately and the other 10 years hence.
The first is from Bavaria Yachts USA which has just announced plans to open factory-direct locations in Newport, RI, The Great Lakes (Chicago), and The San Francisco Bay Area by the end of 2012.
Building on the business model introduced in Annapolis in 2011 each of the new locations will offer direct sales of Bavaria Yachts, the ability to charter a new Bavaria to try before you buy, ability for owners to put their Bavaria into charter together with service focusing solely on Bavaria owners.
Each new location will include a dedicated Horizon Yacht Charters base chartering only Bavaria models. If this business model is successful look for other builders to rapidly follow suit.
The second is the Recreational Boating Stakeholder Growth Summit hosted in December by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and attended by approximately 160 executives and leaders from all industry segments.
The summit was facilitated by the Consensus Centre from the Florida State University. According to the NMMA: “It was the largest and most diverse all industry discussion ever for the recreational boating industry. As a result of the summit, a universal recognition developed among all participants that all segments of the industry have a role and an important stake in working together to develop approaches to grow the recreational boating industry.”
Vision statements for how the industry should look in 2021 were discussed together with action plans and focus areas. An outline of what these look like should be known by the Miami boat show.
The entire industry working together? Now there’s a thought…
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