Following a two-year absence, the Cannes Yachting Festival closed on Sunday 12 September following six days of the exhibition. It was buoyed by energy and enthusiasm shared by all the exhibitors, visitors, service providers and organisers.
The Yachting Festival was the first boat show in Europe to reopen its doors and was particularly well attended. It brought together 575 exhibitors, 620 boats (including 141 world previews) and 54,400 visitors, 50% from abroad, who came to admire the best there is in French and international motor, sailing, monohull or multihull boats. There was Irish interest too with a good attendance according to some key trade insiders.
As Afloat previously reported, one of the Irish firms attending, MGM Boats of Dun Laoghaire signed an important deal with Zodiac, the French RIB and Inflatable manufacturer for a new line in electric boats for next season.
Significantly, in figures released by show organisers, the 2021 edition visitor numbers to Cannes are identical to those of the 2019 edition, which was a record year.
The Festival managed to be successfully built in a difficult context throughout the year and offer a wealth of content in terms of the number of brands, new products and types of boat, products and services. Despite the travel restrictions the current health situation imposed for certain countries, the Festival not only welcomed clients from Europe, but visitors from all over the world.
The Yachting Festival was distributed between both of Cannes’ ports for the second time, the Vieux Port and Port Canto, and kept all its promises.
“Our – ambitious – aim for the Festival which was prepared while Covid is still here was to do as well as the 2019 edition in terms of the number of exhibitors, boats and visitors. If the total number of exhibitors (-7%) and boats (-4%) was slightly down on 2019, the number of boats presented as world previews was up by 10% and the number of visitors was the same which is very positive during this time. We are proud of and happy with these results. This edition represented a real challenge at each stage of its organisation. We constantly took new organisation constraints into account as the legislation developed and we worked closely and efficiently with the Alpes-Maritimes prefect, the Grasse subprefect and their departments, whom I thank. The more the opening date approached, the more we felt the motivation, enthusiasm, and growing impatience of our exhibitors and visitors to meet up in Cannes again. This edition was an incredible one to prepare and experience, as much for them as for my team and myself. My memory of this edition will be that it was an incredible human experience. 2021 will remain unforgettable in many ways”!
concludes Sylvie Ernoult, Director of the Yachting Festival.
