The five-day Dubai International Boat Show, now in its 26th year, was held at an exciting new venue this year. The Dubai Canal, Jumeirah (near to Dubai Ladies Club and The Four Seasons on the Jumeirah Beach Road) hosted the boat show from 27th Feb to 3rd March’18 and served as an excellent venue, showcasing the world’s most exquisite yachts! The Dubai boat show is the largest marine and luxury lifestyles event in the Middle East, attracting numerous super yachts, new launches, renowned yachting brands and more than 29,000 visitors to the city every year. Apart from the fabulous boats on display, the event also had a pavilion allotted for DMEX – Dive Middle East Exhibition, separate zones for marine equipment, innovations, supplies and accessories, a pavilion dedicated to water sports, sailing and fishing, a Retail village and a Super Car Promenade! The visitors had the opportunity to indulge in waters ports and boat trials and were also entertained with a vibrant program of water stunts and demonstrations. DIBS’18 was a great place to be with family and friends, a perfect outing where one could relax, grab a bite to eat and listen to live music in a beach-side entertainment area.
The Dubai International Boat Show is attended by dignitaries, members of the royal families and VIPs every year. Under a canopy of an overcharged atmosphere, exhibitors from across the world display luxury yachts, world-class maritime machinery, boats, leisure equipment and more. The event is a meeting point for marine investors and enthusiasts. Waterfront realtors are always launching spectacular properties during the show. DIBS is the most anticipated event in the Middle Eastern maritime calendar, inviting over 840 leading international, regional and local exhibitors from 50 countries, making it an unparalleled platform for exhibitors to showcase boats and products to the Middle East. Dubai has successfully made a superb contribution to the maritime leisure industry in the region and worldwide. A recent report by the World of Yachts features UAE in the top ten list, ranked 9th in the world’s super yachts in production in 2018. There are 14 new builds with a combined length of 611 metres being manufactured in the country. Gulf news stated that the global ocean industry is expected to hit 3 trillion dollars by 2030 and marine and coastal tourism is expected to contribute to a quarter of this!
What’s Different about Dubai?
When you ponder on how Dubai has risen to be such a strong base for the leisure boating market, the answer is obvious and the answer is ‘exceptional and consistent growth of infrastructure’ over the past 25 years. This is hardly surprising given the passion and innovation the country has put into two and a half decades and the 26th Dubai International Boat Show is proof of the growth that the industry and the country has made. The new venue- Dubai Canal, plus the marina in Port Rashid and the Dubai Marina, together offer so much more space and visibility to promote luxury boating. Another business booster for their leisure boating industry will be the Dubai Harbour. The Dubai Harbour, which is still in its development phase, is touted to become the region’s largest harbour! In 2020, Dubai Harbour will become the show’s permanent home when construction is completed on the 1400 berth marina complex. Spread over an area of 20 million square feet the harbour aims to become, not just central to maritime leisure and business, but a tourist hot spot with technological and architectural attractions.
To conclude, The Dubai International Boat Show has not stopped evolving just as the landscape and skyline around it has been transformed. Dubai keeps expanding further through the desert and the International Boat Show pulls in more investors than ever. The yachting industry here can only be described as booming! Recent reports confirm 20 per cent of the ultra-high net worth individuals in the Middle East have bought a super yacht in the past 15 years and 205 super yachts over 40 metres in length are registered in the region.