The China (Shanghai) International Boat Show (CIBS) opened its doors for the very first time 17 years ago, literally in an underground car park. The only way to describe this decision is visionary, because the Chinese leisure boat industry at that time was not even at its beginnings.
China (Shanghai) International Boat Show (CIBS)
Over the years the show has grown and while, like any market, there has been the occasional year where the growth has reversed slightly, CIBS has gone from strength to strength.
Part of the cause of that strong growth is the very location of the show. Shanghai has a history going back centuries as a port, as an international city and as China’s primary window on the world. It’s maritime tradition, cultural mix and the city’s modern wealth and dynamism make it almost automatic that the relatively new leisure marine industry should have one of birthplaces and centres of growth here in the city.
It also has to be said that UBM SinoExpo’s handling of the show is also one of the primary reasons for its success. Accommodating its exhibitors as best as possible, introducing new initiatives such as try-a-boat open days, a Charity Regatta, model boat sailing on site, the Asian Marine & Boating Awards and this year, for the first time, looking at a wider collection of products that are all part of the trappings that make up leisure boating.
Of course a collection of boats that people just look at is more an exhibition than a show but the market for leisure craft is growing in China and along with the vibrancy of Shanghai, it is bordered on two sides by two of China’s wealthiest provinces that bring along one more vital ingredient – easily accessible boating waters. This combination has led to a rapidly growing number of end users who want to ‘get on the water’ and do so in their own boat.
Last year CIBS moved to a new show site, 30% bigger than the old one – and sold out. More importantly the boats on show also virtually sold out with many more orders taken for a total value of RMB 2.2Bn (Yes that is a ‘B’ not an ‘M’). This year it is bigger still and already – with 4 months to go – 80% of the new space is taken up.
All this in the global light of boat shows being reduced in size or cancelled altogether.
Where will it end?
Well in the USA, 50% of those who can afford a boat own one – of all sorts of sizes. In China just 0.004% of those who can afford a boat have, so far, taken that first step.
One counter argument is that “it could take forever”.
The dinghy revolution in the UK started just 50 or so years ago with the small cruiser market taking off in the 80’s – that is not so long ago – and with the Chinese middle class already around 4 times that of the whole population of the UK.
Additionally, the population of Chinese millionaires already outnumbers those in the whole of Europe, the country’s economy is second only to one and a boat is perceived by many to be the ultimate luxury product in a land where 3 separate and independent reports placed China as the world’s largest luxury goods market in the future. The only difference between these three reports was timescale, and the longest estimate was just 7 years from now.
China is set to be one of the world’s biggest boating markets, just as it already is rushing up the league tables in so many other product categories and the China (Shanghai) International Boat Show is just one indicator of how this area of leisure is proving to be of increasing interest to its people.
