Formenti: “Great numbers at the Genoa Boat Show, a success”

The numbers will be disclosed only at the end of the boat show but they should undoubtedly be exceptional numbers. After the sold out on Saturday, Sunday was also sold out with online sales only and the ticket offices remained closed. Already on Sunday morning, computers calculate more than 85% of available seats as sold. This was indicated by the Vice President of Confindustria Nautica Piero Formenti in the meeting dedicated to the press. “We certainly expected success. We have seen it – said Formenti – from the pre-sales of tickets that started immediately but something like that of this year actually amazes a lot even if it has become a confirmation. Saturday and Sunday sold out. The sold out is caused by the fact that we still have restrictions due to Covid, but, since we do a thorough check of the Green Pass and the tampons at the entrance, our maximum number has increased, almost doubled compared to last year. . Despite this, we had sold out on Saturdays and Sundays. On Thursday and Friday we will have had sold out if they had remained the numbers of last year and I personally expect great numbers also on Monday and Tuesday as many people have not managed to finalize the purchase and registration of tickets since we are sold out early in the morning for the next day “.” It’s not nice to say it but certainly the pandemic has made Italians, not only Italians but all over the world, understand how beautiful it is to go to sea and getting closer to the safety of going to sea, spaced apart, not having the problem of worrying about your health, sailing and taking holidays in this way then people realized that there is also a very affordable boating, which almost anyone can tackle and consequently this great increase in sales that there has been, thanks to the approach of people to pleasure boating, in our opinion is quite structural, certainly then a bit of a bull there is that it will deflate, but I would say that for 70-80% that growth is structural and this repays us for many years in which we have tried in every way to bring people closer to boating by making it clear that it was not just something exclusive for the rich. Unfortunately there had to be a virus to do it, however I believe this will redevelop and improve everyone’s holidays “, stressed Formenti. Today the fair is surrounded by a large demolition site of the old fair structures, but there are great expectations for 2023, when visitors will be welcomed by Renzo Piano’s new waterfront “here in two years there is the possibility of doing something more beautiful than what can be done in a small marina like Cannes” says the Vice President of Confindustria Nautica Piero Formenti. “With the new waterfront – said Formenti – which is taking place, I believe that the Genoa International Boat Show can be a candidate to be the most beautiful and the most important boat show in the world. Already today we are among the top three or four, but with what will be achieved by 2023, I believe that no one will be able to match. It will be very important that all Italian shipyards, small and large, understand this and invest and dedicate themselves to making it truly the most important in the world also with their contribution, for example by presenting their news here in Genoa and not in other salons. Here in Genoa because we are the second nautical industry in the world, we make our show the one that launches the news as it was in the past and as I think we must all of us, as Italians, go back to being. Unfortunately I was the only one to launch their products in Genoa, I have nothing against the Cannes show. Indeed, the French do it in Cannes and it would be a lie if the Italians did it in Genoa. I’ve been doing it for years now ”. The lack of raw materials and qualified personnel is creating big problems for the yachting industry: “This has created two kinds of big problems, first – explained Formenti – not being able to organize production well and arriving at not being able to deliver everything that we should and could have delivered on the basis of the active orders that arrived, but also the fact that we suffered the increase in costs, because the shortage of raw materials automatically led to an increase in their costs. This has also led us to have a detrimental effect on the profits of companies. Transport is a huge problem, containers have tripled or quadrupled in their cost. This penalizes us a little in exports, for example to the United States. The decrease in derivatives from oil processing has led to more difficulties in finding plastics, rubbers and so on and consequently has raised prices as well as putting us in difficulty. Even if we will tend to increase and to hire, we are all hiring and this is very important, we must say it, we are precautionary, we are trying to accept growing orders but with caution and grabbing raw materials well in advance, so that our purchasing offices they are facing a hard work of preventive forecasting many months earlier than what they once did ”.