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November December 2018 Marina World

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The magazine for the marina industry

The stunning Bvlgari

The stunning Bvlgari Resort Marina in Dubai, UAE was delivered by Majestic Marine Engineering LLC and has become the point of reference of excellence in the marina industry of the region. Majestic is a specialised EPC contractor established in the 1980’s and the pioneer of pontoon and boardwalk systems made of FRP and FRC composite, ferrousfree, non-corrosive materials thus offering superior durability and longevity. The impressive portfolio of Majestic’s projects can be browsed at www.majestic-marine. com WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTORS WANTED Interested parties can contact us at info@majestic-marine.com “ Just Add Boats ” Visit our stand at METSTRADE Marina Yard Pavilion .05.404 Maricer (CPES Ltd) Vale Industrial Estate, Spilsby, Lincolnshire If you change nothing Nothing will change Change to the world of www.maricer.com sales@maricer.com Call Now On +44 (0) 1790 753164

GLOBAL INDUSTRY OVERVIEWS Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has 300 wet slips and drystack for 100 boats. It is part of the BR Marinas network. Privately operated marinas on the French Riviera also have to face tougher competition with other Mediterranean destinations, especially those dealing with the superyacht sector, notably due to fluctuating state regulations which discourage superyacht owners from making lasting plans for the future. Also on the Med, many concessions granted to private operators a few decades ago are now coming up for renewal and this is sometimes leading to uncertainty. Good news comes from the fact that boating remains a pretty popular activity among the middle class and incentive discounting solutions are offered to berth holders within marina networks in order to retain custom. New concepts like ‘boat clubs’, shared ownership and peer-to-peer boat rental that could seduce younger generations of consumers are also emerging. In any event, there is no longer any opportunity to develop new facilities from scratch as all new proposals are impeded by environmental coastal planning. In the most attractive areas, however, some existing famous marinas are going to be refurbished or even totally revamped in order to gain new berths, update their layout and freshen up their image. Drystack solutions are still relatively scarce except for a few racks here and there as subsidiary solutions. Obviously, despite a still fairly satisfactory global berthing occupancy, the present situation shows that the French marina industry is no longer as buoyant as it was a few years ago. But very few stake holders are really prepared to challenge themselves as nobody has a clear vision of the midterm future. Jean-Michel Gaigné CMM SPAIN Berths and moorings in Spain total some 135,000, distributed in 380 marinas. Spain has two geographical areas in which most of the country’s marina activity is concentrated. These are the Balearics and Catalonia, which together host 28% of the marinas and 39% of the berths. It is a difficult place to develop a marina business for several reasons: • The business environment is often patriarchal and a small group Oscar Siches of traditionally minded people has too strong an influence with the local government. Marina industry knowledge is appreciated but is not a high priority. • There are two different administrations with different laws depending on whether a marina is a state or regional harbour. Two marinas separated by just two or three miles can be subject to different laws (and government fees). • Harbour authorities only look at their bottom line, ignore market research indications and give no value to creating jobs, driving the economy, and the value of good tourism image. Nautical business is seen as Midas gold. • Bureaucracy is complex, long and tedious. The government has no time limits on issuing an administrative decision. • Yachting is not popular in Spain, and populist type politics veer away from approving facilities for fear of being seen as ‘helping the rich’. Over the last five to 10 years, the marina business has changed for the better but the lack of knowledge of a second language keeps Spain away from overseas exhibitions, seminars or conferences. Marina industry professionals interact mostly with themselves. This means they learn about the preferences of their many foreign clients (mostly English and German) by the trial and error method. This is totally unnecessary in 2018 with easy, cheap travel and communications to hand. In the Balearics, the authorities grant facilities to yacht clubs as non-profit organisations and heavily tax marinas as commercial entities. This makes integration impossible. This is less of a problem in other regions of the country. Catalonia, for example, has an excellent yacht harbour association, which should be seen as an example of how to manage a nautical environment. Oscar Siches CMM SOUTH AMERICA For the past decade, since the 2008 global financial crisis, the nautical sector has not made much progress in South America as a whole, with one honourable exception: Colombia. This should come as no surprise as the country is close to the effervescent nautical tourism in the Caribbean and has experienced moderate but consistent economic growth, relying both on external and internal demand to develop new boating facilities. Venezuela, with the same privileged geographic location, has not been able to harness this potential for obvious reasons. Away from traditional boating destinations and with stagnant economic performance, all other countries in the continent lack these two main drivers Klaus Peters www.marinaworld.com - November/December 2018 33

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