UCINA’s president outlines the advances made as well as the challenges still facing Italy’s marine industry at a presentation of this year’s Genoa boat show.
Italy’s marine industry is showing ‘encouraging signs’ but still has some challenges to face, according to Italian association UCINA, which last week held a press conference in Milan in the run up to October’s Genoa International Boat Show.
Industry turnover for the first quarter of 2011 is up 3.9 per cent on the same period last year, according to UCINA’s statistics. Numbers are generally stabilising on 2010 and what growth there is being generated by export, with emerging markets compensating for a ‘stalled’ domestic market, which now represents 20 per cent of the sector’s turnover.
“2008-2010 was certainly the worst moment in the history of this industry, which saw an overall contraction in turnover of around 45 per cent,” said UCINA president Anton F Albertoni. “According to studies UCINA has carried out with the University of Genoa the sector is now worth little more than €3.4bn compared to €6.2bn in 2008.”
The passing of Italy’s ‘Development Decree’, approved definitively on July 7, has given the Italian domestic market some respite, according to Albertoni, paving the way for the creation of up to 50,000 new boat spaces, the elimination of the building licence previously needed for the installation of floating pontoons, and the simplification of laws concerning superyacht administration.
UCINA is now targeting the clearing up of legal grey areas concerning the passage of superyachts through Italian waters and the climate of suspicion over yacht ownership, which has seen checks by Italy’s financial police increase as the 2011 boating season begins.
In addition to an overview of the Italian marine industry, UCINA presented the new features for this year’s Genoa boat show, which include an area dedicated to boat tests, a redesigned superyacht section and increased visibility and one-on-one business meeting options for equipment exhibitors.
Events at this year’s show will include the presentation of UCINA’s annual marine market analysis and the first ever Genoa International Boating Forum. The show will also host the SMART European innovation forum, which this year has ‘Sailing Towards Innovation’ as its theme.
The 51st Genoa International Boat Show will run from October 1-9, 2011 and is organised by Fiera di Genova SpA and UCINA. Over 1,300 exhibitors — 35 per cent of which from outside Italy — will attend the show, which hosts more than 2,000 boats, 450 of which in the water.
On Monday, October 3 and Tuesday, October 4 the equipment exhibition in Hall C will be dedicated to professional visitors for the show-within-a-show TechTrade.