Sales of luxury and leisure vessels are on the rocks in the Middle East, where owning a boat for cruising, entertaining or fishing is seen as a status symbol, industry officials say. Marine consultant Mike Derrett estimates that boat sales in the Middle East will halve in the next one to two years, down from 1,200 boats sold last year and 1,500 sold in 2007, due to the global economic downturn. Despite the market hitting the doldrums, however, the effects of the credit crunch will be gentler in the Middle East than in the United States or Europe, where sales are expected to plunge by 75 percent, he predicts. “Things are more likely to bounce back here...There is a lot more growth potential here and in Asia,” Derrett said. Luxury boats showcased at a recent international boat fair in Dubai drew amazement from spectators, but few were persuaded to dig into their pockets and splash out. “Haven't you heard? There's a financial crisis going on,” Max Wilchefski 30, said an Australian construction design manager at the Dubai International Boat Show - the biggest annual boat show in the Middle East and one of the top five in the world. “We're dreaming. We'd love two of these ‘Out Of Limits' racing boats,” said Wilchefski's friend Rick Vinantuono, 38. Both said however they would stick to just “looking around” - which exhibitors said had been the gloomy refrain of this year's show. At this month's boat show, 721 exhibitors from 50 countries displayed more than 400 boats on a sprawling space of 85,000 sq m, the size of about 17 football pitches. However, the number of exhibitors was 11 percent down on the 810 who pitched up in 2007, according to show organisers, who added that around 26,000 people visited the exhibition this year, down from nearly 27,500 last year. Glitzy leisure craft ranged from luxury yachts to speed boats, including the “Quantum of Solace” - the power boat featured in the latest James Bond movie of the same title. Not everyone has been negatively affected by the economic downturn. “On the contrary, we have benefited because the prices of building materials have dropped,” said Sultan Al-Naeimi, chairman of Premier Composite, a UAE manufacturer of sailing yachts. “We have been affected by the crisis to a small extent, but we already signed contracts and we're doing fine,” he said. Derrett said the industry in the Gulf region is being affected by a lack of berths with 9,000 berths in the GCC for 44,000 boats needing mooring. By 2012 another 7,000 berths are to be built.
