Boating might be going through a rough patch here in the USA, but it seems to be booming in Asia.
One youthful market that is heading for a surge is India. A couple of years ago the country’s first boat show was launched in Mumbai, where new millionaires are emerging all of the time.
While the show resulted in many new-boat orders—about $5m worth—there remained one obstacle to a surge in boat ownership; there was not a single marina along the country’s 4,375 miles of coastline.
Now one is under construction, in Kerala, a town located in the country’s south; another is planned for the resort area of Goa. These are the thin end of the boating wedge. Many more marinas are being planned, and the developers hope that one day the 150-mile coast between Mumbai and Goa will rival the French Riviera; some predict that within 5 years, the country’s fledgling recreational marine industry will be worth $1 billion.
But that’s nothing compared to the growth predicted for the Arabian Gulf. In Dubai, an astounding 40,000—yes, that’s forty thousand—marina berths are in the pipeline. Already two marinas are under way, with 1,500 berths between them for small to mid-sized boats, and the first megayacht marina will be completed next year.
Island Global Yachting, which is developing the marinas, expects 3,000 berths to be completed next year and another 4,000 in 2010.
Closer to home, IGY has developed marinas in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, the BVIs, and the Turks & Caicos islands.
