Thom Dammrich, President, National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) gave a candid overview of the boating industry in the U.S at a press briefing at the end of the opening day of the Miami International Boat Show.
He started by getting the bad news out of the way – 2008 new boat sales down 28% in units and 25% in dollars over 2007. He went on to say that the marine industry in 2006 reached nearly U$40 Billion in total direct sales but that the NMMA expects that the industry will slip under U$30 billion in 2008 bringing the industry back to 2001 levels. Dammrich then said that “we have good news on boating participation numbers and participation precedes purchase. Boating participation peaked in 1997 at 32% of adult Americans and then declined steadily through 2005. The Discover Boating campaign was launched in 2006 which increased participation by 6% in 2006, by almost 9% in 2007 and almost 1% in 2008″.
Dammrich states correctly that the biggest challenges in 2009 namely credit, the housing market and consumer confidence are beyond the industry’s control. He suggested a wide range of things the industry should do in the coming months ranging from Dealer Certification through using social media such Facebook and Twitter to market the boating lifestyle.
Dammrich saved the best for last by stating that “boating is not going away, it will be back bigger and better than ever”. He said “in the next 40 years the US population is predicted to grow from 300 million to 450 million. If we make boating attractive to 32% (the same % of current Americans who go boating) that would represent nearly 50 million new boats in the next 40 years – about 80% more boating participants than we have today.”
Posted by: James
Categories:
Marine Industry