Blog | Final Count is in, and Attendance at Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show up 7%!

The 58th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) hit town on November 5th, with promises of delivering the “biggest and best edition” of the annual event yet.

That promise was kept and then some! The final count is in, and attendance was up 7% from last year. On November 14th, Informa Exhibitions, the organizers of the show announced that FLIBS 2017, which ran from November 1-5 across seven locations in Fort Lauderdale, attracted 105,000 visitors — an increase of 7 percent over FLIBS 2016. The announcement came in a company press release, where Andrew Doole, Informa’s vice president and general manager, said, “Excellent weather, a robust economy, realigned marketing efforts and a huge selection of new product offerings brought energetic crowds to the docks and exhibits daily.” The release also indicated that those visitors came from “more than 50 countries worldwide.”

“The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show went really well, [the attendance] was  particularly impressive given the limited amount of time we had to pull the event together after the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma,” concluded Informa’s finance director, Gareth Wright.

Wright’s words certainly echo our own experiences at 2017 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat show. Besides the physical improvements made by the show organizers –  $7 million worth of enhancements were made including upgrades to docks, electrical equipment, signage and navigational aids and exhibition flooring –  one big difference this year was the show running from Wednesday till Sunday, instead of Thursday through Sunday as in years past. That new format seemed to have increased traffic for us, as well as for all of the exhibitors at the show. The weather couldn’t have been better, and many people seemed to want to take advantage of the extended days. In fact, Wednesday and Thursday were surprisingly heavy traffic days. We also found, that there was a much greater number of serious and qualified buyers at the boat show this year, many who came with insurance checks in hand to replaced damaged boats or equipment due to Hurricane Irma.

“Overall, we consider the show a big success. I think we had a great show,” said Mike Carlson, Co-Founder and CEO of 26 North Yachts. “We didn’t sign any contracts at the show, but we had a lot of traffic, and a lot of interest from qualified buyers. We have already had a few post show follow-up viewings of several of the yachts we had on display, and it would not surprise me, if in the next few weeks, we had at least three or four deals from leads we obtained at the show.”

Selling Yachts

Of course “selling yachts” was the reason we exhibited at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, but it was our appearances on the popular AWE TV series Selling Yachts, which made us feel like celebrities at this year’s event! Not only did we have more traffic than ever before to our exhibit, but over a dozen visitors said they came by to meet us specifically because they had seen our brokers on Selling Yachts!

“We’ve had a great five days here at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show, said Nicholas Scherb, Co-founder, 26 North Yachts. “We saw a ton of qualified buyers who came by, and also a lot of people wanting to upgrade, who are looking to sell, and have us list their current yachts for sale, and more than a few of them said they wanted to work with us because they saw us on TV!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UateEpU87sI

Boat Show Specials Continue

We were happy to meet and greet everyone who visited our yachts on display at FLIBS 2017. But, if you did not get a chance to come by, or you did, and want to get another look at one of the fine motor yachts we had on display, we are extending the show special prices on all of the following vessels until the New Year!

Checkmate – A classic 85 foot Burger Yacht.

Ti Punch – An 86 foot Outer Reef, unlike any Outer Reef you have seen before!

Recess – A super-sexy 62 foot McKinna cruiser.

Polaris –An exquisite 74 foot Sunseeker Yacht.

Moby Dick – A 47 foot Intrepid yacht priced to move as fast as she cuts through the waves.

It’s not always easy to stay on top of what’s new in motor yachts. If you would like to benefit from our expertise in these areas, or if you have any questions or comments about this blog post, do not hesitate to contact our Sales Specialists, or call us at 954-900-9988.