Luxury Yachts Revive the Leisure Boat Market in Difficult Times

The global boat market is proving resilient in the face of economic uncertainty. Last year, global turnover of leisure boats rose by 4.6% to 24.7 billion euros. Interconnection Consulting also expects an increase of 5.1% in 2023.

After the market had already increased by 20% in volume in 2021, the production capacity of boat builders, which was also limited due to supply bottlenecks, was no longer able to fully satisfy demand, which led to a price increase in the market for leisure boats and resulted in a decline in sales volume. Sales volumes fell by 3.4% in 2022 and will fall by a further 1.6% in 2023. Nevertheless, price increases will lead to stable turnover increases. Sales should only start to rise again from 2024 onwards, at 2.5%, the authors of the study expect.

Australia is Growth Champion

A reflection of this development is the USA, the largest market for leisure boats, with a market volume of 10 billion euros, which corresponds to a global share of just under 40%. There, sales volume fell by 5%, while turnover increased by 3.4%. The strong-selling areas of Western Europe also show a similar trend, with sales volume declines ranging from 1.9% in Spain to 5.8% in the Benelux countries, with simultaneous turnover growth. While these markets are already showing some saturation, the growth areas are elsewhere. In the Arab region, sales rose by 2.3% last year and turnover to around €550 million (+6.3%). There, it is mainly the demand for luxury motorboats that is driving the market. The share of luxury motorboats is around 50%. However, the growth emperor was Australia with a 7.1% increase in turnover. “Growth was supported by very good infrastructure and geography, which meant that they were not hit as hard by supply chain issues as the rest of the world,” explains Adam Pasinski, the author of the study. This factor also led to the absence of the big price jumps in Australia that we experienced in Europe or the US. With a volume of around one billion euros, the Australian market is similar in size to the boat market in Southeast Asia. The market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow in value by an average of 7.7% annually until 2026.

Big Boats in Strong Demand

A total of around 200,000 leisure boats were sold globally last year. Around three quarters of these were motorboats. 30,000 sailing boats and around 8,000 catamarans made up the rest. About two-thirds of the market volume concerns private boat purchases. Motorboats are and remain the dominant boat type. Large and luxurious boats in particular will continue to gain share. Growth rates increase with boat size. The largest leisure boats show growth rates of 6% annually until 2026, while smaller boats will only grow between 4% and 5%. The boom in the superyacht industry is also leading to coastal infrastructure being geared up to meet the needs of this clientele in order to stay ahead in the tourism race, which in turn increases the incentives to buy superyachts. “The trend towards the sharing economy is also causing the higher demand for larger boats,” Pasinski explains. People would rather share the cost of a larger boat than own a small boat alone. Some of the major boat suppliers in the global world market are, in alphabetical order: Azimut, Bavaria, Beneteau Group, Benetti, Ferretti Group, Hanse Yachts, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha.

Link to the report

26/04/2023

Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.