I’m at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, heading home from this past weekend’s massive boat show. Having had a few days to talk to key representatives from various management companies, I am wondering if it will be the charter market–more so than the brokerage market–that makes the first rebound from the global recession.
My interest was piqued by several informational tidbits, including one from a charter broker at Churchill Yacht Partners, who told me that her phone is starting to ring quite a lot with “last-minute” inquiries for Christmas and New Year’s charters. Yacht owners see the surge in inquiries, she explained, and make a market adjustment by removing recent discount offers from the negotiating table. And still, a good number of clients book.
One charter broker at Fraser Yachts Worldwide told me that she was having her best year ever (and she’s been in the business several decades). The charter fleet manager at Northrop & Johnson told me that her boats all have holiday bookings, as well as a good bit of other winter business, too. She also said that the higher a yacht’s charter rate, the more inquiries she’s receiving.
The most powerful evidence I heard on the docks in Fort Lauderdale this week to support my theory, though, came in the form of a crowd assessment that Northrop & Johnson performed. As of about 10:30 this morning, with just a few hours remaining until the show closed, fully 75 percent of inquiries the company had received on the docks were for charter as opposed to brokerage sales. Seventy-five percent.
Could it be that, while waiting for the brokerage market to bottom out (if it hasn’t already), more people are considering charter? That would be a fascinating message sent by attendees in Fort Lauderdale, where the annual boat show historically is more about buying yachts than vacations.
Stay tuned.
