With only a week having passed since the closing of this year’s Sydney International Boat Show, organizers of the event have started planning for the next year’s edition. Set to be once again hosted by the glamorous Australia yacht charter destination – Sydney, the 2015 Show is scheduled to run from July 30 to August 3.

SIBS 2014

With the show held on dual locations for the first time, organizer, the Boating Industry Association say that lessons learned from this year’s show will make a good foundation for their planning moving forward.

Roy Privett, General Manager for the Boating Industry Association of NSW said “We went into this year’s event with so many plans and back up plans.  Even then we experienced a number of anomalies that we were not expecting.  Never the less, the end result by all accounts was that the majority of exhibitors were more than happy.  We know that we can’t please everyone, which has been the case for the 26 years I have been involved, but given the unusual circumstances of this year, the feedback given to me personally, as well as the team has been both encouraging and rewarding”.

The show will remain in the two locations of Darling Harbour and Glebe Island whilst awaiting the opening in December 2016 of the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) that will be Asia Pacific’s premier business events precinct.

As for this year, the ongoing process will include a detailed analysis of the 2014 event.

Privett said, “We were able to entice almost 50,000 visitors to the show. This is in-line with our forecasting and we achieved the Associations gate budget.  Obviously, we would have liked more visitors, but it did not happen.  Whilst it would be easy to tell you otherwise, the visitor numbers are what they are.  We believe that reporting otherwise is of no benefit to our industry or ourselves.  On the flip side, the ongoing positive visitor and exhibitor reports are heartening.  And it has to be said that recreational boating was delivered in the best possible way to both regular boaties as well as those considering the lifestyle”.

Marketing & Events Manager for the Association, Domenic Genua said “Whilst our post show analysis continues, preliminary information we are getting is that the local “day trip” market did not attend. The final visitation of 48,903 was 17% down on last year.  This can be attributed to a number of reasons, including the challenging economic sentiment and perceptions that travelling and parking at the show would be difficult”

“With a positive customer experience in mind and in order to avoid localised traffic congestion, our communications weighed heavily on educating the public about transport options.  Maybe that message may have been interpreted by some that people cannot drive to the show.  Through our research we know that more than half of our audience do drive and our messaging may have been to our detriment.  This will be something we look at closely for next year”.

The Sydney International Boat Show was joined and supported by their Partner in Safety, Transport for NSW to ensure visitors were up to date on the latest information to help make their time on the water a better and safer experience.