New | China Rendez-Vous boat show in push to make yachting 'cool' among China's super rich
It's still an unfamiliar pastime for China's super-rich, but Hainan expo is set to change that
What's stopping a super-rich Chinese from buying a super yacht? Mainly a poor understanding of yachting in China, according to one luxury-yacht maker.
"The slowing economy [does affect our sales], but it's the lack of knowledge of the value of yachting that's our biggest enemy in China," said Alessandro Tirelli, sales director of Italian luxury-yacht maker Ferretti Group.
Ferretti is one of many exhibitors at the country's largest boat show, the China Rendez-Vous, in Sanya, Hainan province, which ends on Monday. It is displaying eight vessels up to 30 metres long.
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A super yacht, defined as a luxury boat longer than 24 metres, typically cost more than 20 million yuan (HK$24 million).
"Chinese people travel a lot today. They go to Paris, London, but they rarely go to the Mediterranean or other places where yachting is considered a way of life. So we have to show it to our customers," Tirelli said.
In Hong Kong, Ferretti would invite Chinese customers and their families on a one-day tour, giving them a taste of the privacy and relaxation they could enjoy out at sea, he said.
Super yachts are far less popular than luxury cars and private jets among China's swelling ranks of billionaires. Of some 4,800 super yachts around the world in 2013, only 34 were in mainland China, according to a New Zealand government estimate.
Chinese yacht owners prefer to use their vessels as social venues to meet friends or business partners but seldom go for long trips. To adapt to their preferences, Ferretti has built larger cabins in their boats and cut the number of bedrooms while adding karaoke and cigar rooms.
"[Chinese people] may spend tens of millions of yuan on a private jet as it's a useful transport tool. But yachts are just an unfamiliar pastime to them," said China Rendez-Vous founder Lawrence Wang Dafu.
Since the central government launched its anti-graft crackdown in 2013, some Chinese buyers have also turned to overseas markets such as Singapore to buy their super yachts.
Ewa Stachurska, marketing manager of Asia's leading yacht agency Simpson Marine, said many bought their yachts overseas also to avoid paying the 43.6 per cent tax levied on imported boats in China.
Chinese consumers' demand was evolving, she said. "In the past, it was much about bling bling. But now … when we recommend Chinese-style designs to our customers, they tell us, 'Don't treat me like a Chinese. I want my boat like those everywhere else'," Stachurska said.
