COVID started as a sanitary and not as an economic crisis which helped the market to pick up much faster than in 2008.
There has been a big difference though between sales and charter markets. Charter market suffered a lot especially at the beginning of the 2020 season. Only Croatia stayed ahead as it was almost the only country to remain open to tourists and foreign yachts.
From what we can see at Rosemont, new orders and second-hand transactions have boomed. Some sales brokers even say that despite the crisis, travel restrictions and slowdown of the economy, 2021 could be a record year.
Now that life returns slowly to normal, travel restrictions lifted, vaccination campaign accelerating, industry used to “Covid / Force Majeur” clauses, charters bookings increasing (… ) signs are ultra-promising.
More and more business people also start to consider their yacht as their secondary or even first office!
Brexit also kept the industry busy.
EVENTS, SHOWS, MARKETING STRATEGIES
Covid accelerated digitalization also within the yachting industry. There will definitively be a pre and post Covid marketing era.
While zoom became part of our daily life, online seminars, events, yacht shows and even yacht sales have started to emerge. Videos tours have boomed, and some brokers started to create the buzz thanks to their creativity.
Big groups prefer now spending to organize very exclusive events for VIP clients having a real capacity to commit rather than to attending yacht shows.
Yachting appeals above all to emotion so even though digitalization will continue to grow, we will definitively have to continue to travel, physically meet and visit yachts.
NEW REGULATION ON ANCHORAGE & MOORING FOR YACHTS OVER 20M IN THE FRENCH MEDITERANNEAN SEA
It has been a hot topic for a while, it seems a reality now. Starting from this season anchoring of yachts over 20m / 24m will be forbidden in certain areas of the French Riviera
New measures aim to protect the sea and more specifically the Posidonia meadow, regulate the mooring traffic and increase the security during the summer season.
This could definitively have a negative economic impact. While local associations try to obtain some relaxing measures in order to avoid a new yacht exodus towards the Italian Riviera, municipalities and private companies of the areas concerned are working on ecological permanent anchoring and mooring buoys systems. There will be an allowance at least this year though for sheltering in bad weather.
NEW VAT REGULATIONS ON SHORT AND LONG CHARTERS
The industry was aiming for more clarity and harmonized rules, we are slowly getting there. November 2020 definitively signed the end of the so-called flat lump sum reduction regimes in relation to VAT applicable on charter revenues and long term leases in France, Italy, Malta and Cyprus. Only real time spent outside of EU waters is now considered as non-taxable and deductible on a prorate basis. These new rules can have some impacts on the way yachts are operated, but solutions exist as always.
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For more information, please contact Janet Xanthopoulos: j.xanthopoulos@rosemont-yacht.com
This article was originaly published on Monaco Seaside, the exclusive port magazine in Monaco.