Twin boat shows

This weekend, Feb. 14 to Feb. 18, Miami hosts a tandem of boat shows. Florida Trend spoke with Thom Dammrich, president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, which owns the Progressive International Boat Show being held on Virginia Key. The 78th running of the show features 1,100 exhibitors. It expects to draw more than 100,000 attendees, with a quarter of them arriving by water taxi.

This year, the association is collaborating at a new level with the separately owned Miami Yacht Show. That show, co-owned by Informa and the International Yacht Brokers Association, moves to the mainland side of Biscayne Bay to One Herald Plaza this year after a long run on Miami Beach.

The two shows are selling a combination ticket, jointly will offer free transportation and jointly funded a marketing campaign.

What’s the state of the industry?

The industry is doing very well. Nationally, 2018 was our seventh consecutive up year and that would have been the case in Florida as well. We’re projecting sales to be up in 2019 for the eighth consecutive year. Florida is the largest boating state in the country by far.

Any headwinds?

Domestically there are really almost no headwinds. Maybe some weakness in the housing market would be the only headwind we’re facing domestically.

Internationally, the tariff situation is hurting the manufacturers from an export point of view.  (After the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum), Europe, Canada and Mexico retaliated with tariffs on recreational boats. Europe put a 25% tariff on. Exports to Europe have pretty much dried up completely. Exports to Canada are down in the 30 to 40% range.

What’s the workforce situation?

What we had in 2018, although sales were really strong and up, manufacturers had backlogs. They couldn’t produce boats fast enough to meet demand and they couldn’t hire workers. It would not be unusual for a boat builder to have 30, 40, 50 job openings. What the tariffs have done for domestic manufacturers, it’s certainly eased the workforce problem. They don’t need to have as many people and they’re able to keep up with domestic demand.

Why the new teaming with Miami Yacht Show?

Up until four years ago Miami International Boat show was on Miami Beach. The Yacht Show was also on Miami Beach. The two shows cooperated on transportation but not much beyond that.

We moved to Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key. The show on Collins Avenue decided to move to downtown Miami. When they moved just a couple miles away, we both agreed it would be in our best interest to promote the shows and ensure the consumer experience was as positive as can be.

We combined our advertising budgets and spent significantly more on a focused message that we are presenting the largest number of boats available for sale at one place anywhere in the world — 1,900 boats. It’s everything from 16 feet to 300 feet. It is billions and billions of dollars of product on display.