On rebound despite hammer blow to tourism

While Covid has undoubtedly had a debilitating effect on Spain’s tourist-dependent pleasure boat market, business is said to be picking up at firms across the country. The first green shoots appeared in February 2021, when case rates started to fall, and since then turnover from the Spanish marine sector has grown to exceed not only the figures achieved last year but in 2019 too.

This growth in demand has touched all sectors of the Spanish market, particularly the sale and rental of recreational boats. Up to June this year, 3,744 pleasure boats were registered in Spain (2,488 in 2020 and 3,489 in 2019), of which 1,144 were charter vessels.

“The biggest negative impact for Spanish boating companies occurred in the first four months of 2020, the hardest months of the pandemic,” says Carlos Sanlorenzo, secretary general of Spanish trade association ANEN. “In Spain, the industry in general was closed for 15 days and in this period of the first four months of last year, boat sales fell by almost 70%.

“But once this first crisis was overcome, from the second half of June onwards, national demand began to pull the market and until mid-September there was an important recovery that has been maintained moderately until March of this year,” he adds. “From this point onwards, the season – especially the months of April and May – has been very positive, with growth of around 15% over the same months in 2019.”

“The main stumbling block for yachting companies this year is the lack of stock.”

Sanlorenzo told IBI that although charter has been a trend for the last six or seven years, demand continued to growth throughout the pandemic, alongside the sale of boats for private use. The most sought-after boats in Spain are still the smaller ones, up to 12m in length, which account for 95% of the pleasure boat fleet.

In terms of market share, all lengths have grown so far this year compared to 2019. However, boats from 8m-16m in length are particularly strong, growing at a rate of 23% compared to 2019.

By type of boat, sailboats are growing the most, although they still represent a smaller percentage of the market than motorboats. This is due to a boom in new sailors taking up sailing as a safe leisure option in these Covid times.

“The main stumbling block for yachting companies this year is the lack of stock due to the breakdown in the logistics chain caused by Covid-19,” says Sanlorenzo. “The delivery of materials for the construction of boats is being delayed and with it also the deliveries to customers. We are therefore keeping a close eye on how this situation will develop in the coming months and how the market will respond.

“Also in the charter fleet, in some coastal areas such as the Balearic Islands there was already a lack of boats for rent last year due to strong demand.”

As far as taxes are concerned, Spain continues to bear the highest tax burden on the purchase of 12m yacht, with registration tax of 12% in addition to VAT. ANEN is working with the Spanish administration to adapt the taxation of boating in line with the sustainability to which the entire transport sector must aim, in all its forms – a requirement imposed by Brussels and to which the marine industry has to adapt like everyone else.