Interview with Jordi Freixas, director of the Barcelona International Boat Show

The Barcelona International Boat Show is getting ready for its fifty-sixth edition with great optimism in view of the excellent uptake of exhibition space, a reflection of the positive progress of the sector. Organised by Fira de Barcelona, the event aimed at nautical professionals and enthusiasts will be presenting the biggest offering from sports and recreational sailing industry in Spain at the Port Vell venue on 11-15 October, featuring a huge range of vessels and marine-related products and services.

Just three months away from the show, what is the outlook?

We’re very happy with the rate of exhibition space sales and we can already claim that we’ve exceeded last year’s space in response to considerable demand. Everything points to the fact that the show will grow by around 6% and we expect to exceed 270 exhibitors and 670 boats in both the land-based and floating exhibition areas. The Boat Show is the leading sports and recreational sailing event in Spain and this is evident in its roster of exhibitors, who are keen not to miss an event that generates more than 50% of the sector’s annual turnover.

What is the focus of this year’s edition?

This year the show is even further reinforcing its role as a point of reference for the sector, making a bigger than ever commitment to innovation, technology, enterprise and business. It is the only platform where you can discover and test out the latest products in the nautical world, learn about future trends and make new professional contacts, all in a single venue.

Is the nautical sector on the road to recovery?

Figures on the registrations of recreational and sports boats during the first six months of this year certainly point to this fact, and this is the fourth successive year of growth. Up to June, registrations had risen by 13% and the charter sector by 35.4%, so it seems that, after all these years of recession, recovery is finally taking hold.

Which are the main growth sectors at the show?

This year the show is enlarging the floating exhibition area, especially the zone devoted to catamarans, where there will be over 20 boats, some of them really spectacular, and the area for boats of up to 12 metres. The number of boats under 8 metres long has also grown and these will mainly be exhibited on land.

What are the most important new features of the show?

Following on from last year, we are continuing to promote the more professional side of the show, strengthening our position as the leading platform for the sector in Spain. For this reason, after the success of last year’s show, we will be holding the second round of Entrepreneur and Start-Up conferences which will also have more participants; we expect more than 20 companies to take part and they will be held on every day of the show. There will be an exhibition area for projects, a video pitch session, an investment forum attended by private investors, family office firms and business angels, plus conferences and networking sessions. Another novelty will be the new B2B space for holding business meetings to promote new commercial contacts. This will be managed by a mobile app to centralise all the meetings.

What other activities will be taking place?

Once again, we want the show to be a real festival of all things nautical with the aim of opening this world up to every audience. We will therefore be enhancing our entertainment offering with more hands-on experiences and live demonstrations of nautical sports in the Fun Beach area. There will also be the usual exhibition of traditional boats, talks and workshops at the Espai del Mar and the Nautical Night with exhibitor-hosted parties, tasting sessions, live music and dancing, a nocturnal kayak-and-swimming crossing of Port Vell and many more activities. The Boat Show is undoubtedly a unique event at which to discover the sector’s new products, experience some fascinating activities and learn about new ways of enjoying the sea. I encourage everyone to come along to the Boat Show and have a wonderful day out with family or friends in the unparalleled setting of Barcelona’s Port Vell.