Paris Show dilemma

The 61st Salon Nautic de Paris opened to the public last Saturday and despite coinciding with a national rail strike, the level of visitor attendance, as witnessed firsthand by IBI, seemed respectable. By the end of its eight-day run – strikes permitting – the show should have welcomed over 100,000 people placing it amongst the most visited in the world.

However, even before Covid-times the number of exhibitors and the surface area of the show had been declining dramatically. Whereas it used to be housed in five halls of the Porte de Versailles, it is now down to just Hall 1 and Hall 2 together with the corridor connecting the two halls, with around 385 individual stands of which some 20 are devoted to swimming pool and hot tubs.

For a number of years now, the show has been concentrated on small- and medium-sized motorboats, while the sail element has contracted to such an extent that the Beneteau/Jeanneau stands were heavily power-orientated, and the Hanse Group had no sailboat presence at all.

Exhibitors say they are unhappy about high costs vis a vis their return on investment.  VIParis (a subsidiary of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and the Paris Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry) which holds the long-term management contract for the venue and sets the fees, seems unconcerned that their high rental demands are causing the Federation des Industries Nautiques (FIN), the owner and manager of the Paris boat show, serious problems.

Given that boating is such a popular pastime in France, a physical show in the capital seems an essential element of the marketing mix but in the future it may not be located in its existing venue, with the FIN working on potential alternatives. As a metaphor for the problems besetting the show, the largest boat on display at this year’s event – and one of the most visited – was a lifeboat, the 15m Pierre Robert Graham.

With the national or regional capitals of London, Amsterdam, Brussels,or Copenhagen and Hamburg all throwing in the towel on organizing indoor shows in recent years on economic grounds, the FIN is working hard to preserve Paris Nautic to cater for an enthusiastic audience and to live up to Saturday’s headline in national French newspaper, Le Figaro: “Paris, capitale du nautisme.”

Source: IBI News