Strong winds and high sales at Dubai show

by Thomas Clarke, Amanda Slater on 22 Mar 2006 Despite blustery conditions at the Dubai International Boat Show (DIBS), exhibitors are reporting high sales, with 140 boats – including at least 25 luxury yachts – sold already, breaking the previous year’s record on the fourth day of the show.

Sales of marine equipment, fishing gear and accessories have also significantly surpassed previous years’ figures, underlining the major growth that the Middle East marine leisure market is currently experiencing.

Although deals are still being closed on the final day, data already gathered confirms that sales have already broken through the USD100 million total sales recorded in 2005.

Middle East companies in particular have created a splash at the event, with companies from the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait all registering significant sales.

The UAE’s Gulf Craft Inc. saw high sales levels, selling over USD10 million worth of boats in the first three days, including a record number of its Majesty Yachts class vessels.

Sunseeker Middle East also achieved strong results, selling a Predator luxury yacht and a Manhattan 50 craft on the first day, in addition to lining up a significant number of orders.

Another company seeing major success is Bahrain’s Al Dhaen Craft, which manufactures high quality leisure craft using innovative techniques and the finest materials. The company has already secured sales of eight of the eleven craft they brought in for the show, including two 43 foot craft for Dh. 1.5 million each, and was finalizing sales on others today.

“We came here with high expectations because of the strong reputation of DIBS and our experience justified our optimism. In addition to our sales at this year’s show, we anticipate further developments will follow because of the high level customers we have spent time with,” said Ali Hassan Al Dhaen, Director, Al Dhaen.

One of the largest exhibitors at the show, ART Marine, brought a total of 19 boats to this year’s show, in addition to running 9 stands representing 14 brands. Sales have been extremely strong, with particularly high interest in the wide range of yachts on offer.

“We are extremely happy with our performance at this year’s Boat Show, where we have benefited from the booming interest in marine leisure in the Middle East. We are already planning to come back next year with a significantly enhanced level of involvement,” said Celine Weber, Marketing and PR Director, ART Marine.

Other international groups also saw strong early returns from their presence at this year’s show.

Veteran Italian boat builder, Primatist, which had specially-modified Aero Top Evolution 41 and 57 boats on show, successfully sold two models valued at over USD 1.5 million each, and was optimistic of further sales before the close.

“We began exhibiting at last year’s show and have found that this year has been a remarkable success. The quality of customers and the interest level was impressive. Primatist has been building boats since 1873, and the company believes there has never been a more exciting time to be selling boats in the Middle East,” said Livinio Gioffredi, Managing Partner, Al Wasata, Primatist’s partner in the region.

Executives at DIBS 2006 are delighted at exhibitors’ success at this year’s show, and are already dealing with a high volume of requests from new and existing companies interested in exhibiting at next year’s show.

“Dubai International Boat Show is designed to provide more people with access to marine leisure in the Middle East and also to build a strong platform for companies to do business here. We're excited to celebrate the success of so many of our exhibitors, and look forward to working with them for an ever better show next year,” said Trixee Loh, General Manager – Exhibitions, Dubai World Trade Centre.