“The country’s leisure yachting businesses may face yet one more spherical of ‘too many boat shows’ as quickly as the Covid disruptor has passed into relative insignificance.”
It’s hard to think about something as simple as a boat show inflicting countless controversy – but that has been the case virtually since Thailand’s first show, Phuket International Marine Expo (PIMEX), held in 2003 at the Phuket Boat Lagoon (PBL).
The brainchild of Image Asia MD, Grenville Fordham, and his business partner Andy Dowden, the thought of a ship present in Phuket initially attracted doubters in droves… “They’ve received no experience” and “It could be risky giving them deposits” have been simply two of the anti-show cries heard from trade naysayers.
But built on the rising dissatisfaction expressed by returning Boat Asia (Singapore) exhibitors, the idea gathered momentum and supporters. Small by international requirements and completely under canvas onshore, with not an excellent many boats in the water, Thailand’s first-ever boat present was, nevertheless, hailed as a hit by domestic and international exhibitors.
The timing was crucial; the next 12 months, industry efforts to scale back taxation on imported boats had been wildly profitable; the 200+ % levies beforehand applied were reduced to just 7% VAT, heralding the actual starting of the exponential development of Thailand’s (and significantly Phuket’s) leisure yachting trade – and on the same time guaranteeing that boat shows in Phuket had sturdy future potential.
Thus, PIMEX ran smoothly at PBL, under the Image Asia banner, in December every year till 2006 with an unchanged format, and with progressively increasing numbers, selection and high quality of exhibitors. Then, in 2007, ownership of the show passed to Andy Dowden’s Andaman Marine Consultants (AMC) and it relocated to Royal Phuket Marina (RPM), now not underneath canvas.
Visitor numbers, however, remained fairly static at someplace between 3,000 and four,000, as it turned clear that attracting large numbers of abroad visitors to a present in Phuket was, maybe, a challenge too far. It would prove to be a recurring theme.
Nevertheless, following worldwide media exposure of PIMEX 2007, the expanding Informa Yacht Group (IYG) acquired ownership of the present, retaining AMC to run issues on the ground. PIMEX 2008 went ahead, nonetheless in December and still at RPM.
Under the IYG umbrella, nice new things by means of advertising were promised – with consequential enhancements in quantity and high quality of tourists – however with no substantial development in both, albeit with a glossier, extra professional, presentation.
Around this time, business voices clamouring for different dates reached fever pitch and a change from December to January was agreed. With no show in 2009, PIMEX 2010 and 2011 had been staged in January with a claimed 25 p.c increase in exhibitors, however still discovering it tough to rise above the customary 3,000 to four,000 visitors.
Responding to contrary exhibitor claims that January was not, after all, the most effective time to run the show, the subsequent four years saw PIMEX swing backwards and forwards between January and March, the organisers doing their finest to please everybody.
Then, suddenly in or round โซล่าเซลล์ราคาถูกคุณภาพดี , Informa determined to exit the boat present business. PIMEX ownership reverted to AMC and PIMEX 2016 went ahead as usual in January at RPM, but under the looming shadow of a model new – and aggressive – show, the next month.
The inaugural Thailand Yacht Show (TYS), held in February 2016 at Phuket’s Ao Po Grand Marina, was the brainchild of former IYG mover and shaker Andy Treadwell and appeared set to drive PIMEX out of enterprise. For the local trade, nevertheless, this was an unwelcome transfer. It meant both doubling their annual Phuket boat present spend or making a difficult selection between a recognized entity and the newer, evidently glossier, different.
The TYS ‘claim to fame’ was massive government support and a key factor of its advertising platform targeted on the temptingly lucrative superyacht sector.
For the first time, the strident industry call, “Does Thailand need another boat show?” resonated around Phuket’s marinas. The prevailing opinion was resoundingly that Phuket, definitely, did not want two boat shows. But it had them.
PIMEX 2017 went forward at RPM in January and was adopted again, this time at a more respectable interval, by the second TYS in December. Come January 2018, we find Andy Dowden’s AMC teaming up with Olivier and Gael Burlot, organisers of the Singapore Rendezvous, to present the all-new Phuket Rendezvous 2018 at RPM, which was like its predecessor, PIMEX, however with a touch extra pizzazz.
Not to be outdone, TYS 2018 went again to its unique killer timing, closely following the Rendezvous in February, once more at Ao Po Grand Marina.
Something clearly had to give. Phuket now had three separate entities organising two completely different boat shows three years in a row, stretching each the budgets and the endurance of Phuket’s main yacht brokers, amongst others. And something was carried out.
An unlikely partnership between Andy Treadwell and the Burlot brothers – who had been doing battle in Singapore with the former’s Singapore Yacht Show and the latter’s Singapore Rendezvous – conceived the Thailand Yacht Show & Rendezvous 2019, held at RPM. This dropped at an end the brokers’ nightmare of two competing boat shows on this small holiday island, whereas almost incidentally bringing to an finish Thailand’s unique boat show, PIMEX.
The harmony, nevertheless, was brief lived. The following 12 months saw Andy Treadwell, by way of his new organising company Verventia, win the battle of the boat reveals and stage, without visible partners, the TYS 2020 at RPM. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of aid that there was, as soon as again, just one Phuket boat show in the island’s most fitted venue.
Then Covid-19 modified every thing. TYS 2021 was, unsurprisingly, cancelled together with Verventia’s more mature Singapore Yacht Show. Uncertainty reigned and a boat show void appeared, a minimal of in the understanding of the latest entrant in Phuket’s boat show battles.
Believing (based – we understand – on discussions with various concerned parties) that TYS was not going to occur again, in mid-2021 David Hayes, CEO of event organisers JAND Group, launched the inaugural Thailand International Boat Show (TIBS), to be held in January 2022 at RPM. Unfortunately for JAND, a mixture of Covid uncertainty and the renewed spectre of two Phuket boat exhibits resulted within the postponement of TIBS till January 2023.
In the meantime, TYS has announced a model new partnership with Ocean Marina to run the Thailand Yacht Show – Pattaya in April 2022 and has plans to run the Phuket version of TYS throughout 2022 on a date and at a venue yet to be confirmed.
Taking a step back, during the nearly 20 years of boat shows, Phuket has not had things all its own way. Pattaya’s Ocean Marina staged its own boat present – Ocean Marina Pattaya Boat Show (OMPBS) for eight years from 2012 to 2019, attracting for probably the most part domestically primarily based exhibitors, with some from Phuket and different elements of Thailand adding to the mix. The final OMPBS was held pre-Covid in November 2019.
Other tentative forays into Thailand’s troublesome boat show business have included Singapore’s Boat Asia, which staged a one-off ‘Boat Thai’ at a major Bangkok exhibition centre. More recently, a show-within-a-show was staged – ‘Join Boat Platform’ – at Bangkok’s Motor Expo in 2020 and 2021. This new occasion attracted a sprinkling of trailer boats, water toys and some of the larger boat brokers, all hoping to deal with efficiently the large, thus far untapped, potential of the Thai marketplace for leisure boating.
Where to from here? It would take a far more accurate and strong crystal ball than this writer’s to predict Thailand’s boat present future. But if historical past is something to go by, it appears that evidently the country’s leisure yachting companies may face yet another round of ‘too many boat shows’ as quickly as the Covid disruptor has passed into relative insignificance. The only consistent and predictable factor of each Phuket boat show previous, and doubtless future, is that difficult to budge customer count. Hail to she or he who can get 10,000 high quality guests through the gate!
Author:
Paul Poole is the founder, managing director and chairman of Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co., Ltd., an unbiased advertising consultancy primarily based in Bangkok, Thailand. The firm specialises in business sponsorship and partnership marketing, working with each rights holders and types. Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co., Ltd. has packaged, sold, and managed sponsorship and partnership opportunities for several of Southeast Asia’s leading yachting events, including virtually all of the shows named in this story..