Dr Rachel Pecorella Genovese and Dr Edward Meli have today attended the first session of the Malta Superyacht Symposium, an event jointly organised by The Malta Chamber and the Malta Maritime Law Association.
The symposium's first panel centered around making Malta a centre for Superyacht Refits. Panelist members included a number of important stakeholders including: Robert Thorne, from Manoel Island Yacht Yard, Avnish Dhall from Melita Marine Group, Selmar Spijker from NAS, Angelique Abela from MMH Malta Ltd, and Giorgio Casareto of Marina di Varazze Srl, Simon Zammit, from Palumbo Malta Superyachts, Ing Paul Cardona Jnr, MICS Ltd, Joe Degabriele, Senior Business Development Manager, MB92 and Ranier Bezzina from Bezzina Shipyard.
The refit market in Malta has seen over 1,300 Refit yard visits by superyachts and the aim is to continue working on this for the purposes of making Malta a hub for the refit industry. The discussion was mainly focused on the need of implementing an apprenticeship scheme to ensure that the personnel working within the industry have the desired competences and skills. It was agreed by the panelists that all industry players, including but not limited to yards as well as governmental authorities, need to work on ensuring the availability of an efficient infrastructure, a focus on innovation, quality of service, cost effectiveness as well as increased visibility of the industry as a career path thereby ensuring in-house capabilities are available to cater for any refit requirements irrespective of complexity.
The second panel tackled the elements that make Malta a Superyacht Destination. Malta has a total of 11 beautiful marinas, an excellent reputation, an attractive ship registry, deep natural harbours and settings, availability of ship repair yards, personalised service, and luxury offerings. We have also recently seen the United States Coast Guard (USCG) recognising Malta's status as a top performing flag state.
By way of high level statistics, Malta has over 1,000 registered Superyachts, and 2,400 permanent berths. In 2021, over 700 foreign yachts arrived in Malta, 78% of which being yachts under 24m and 22% of which being more than 24m in length; with June being the most frequented month.
Sarah Gauci Carlton from Creek Developments PLC, explained that from her experience, visitors tend to come to explore the historic wonders Malta has to offer, they believe Malta to be lively, safe and family friendly, they find it practical that Malta is an English speaking country, and moreover, from a charter market perspective, Malta's central location and good weather is attractive as charters can be essentially guaranteed.
To continue building on Malta's attractiveness, the industry is focusing on optimising Malta as a key niche tourist segment, investing in logistics and infrastructure, improving luxury offerings, developing specific policy proposals, developing targeted marketing strategies, promoting sustainability, and adopting a holistic approach towards the subject with the tourism business sector and yachting business sector collaborating and working hand in hand for the industry to flourish in the right direction.
Additionally, as explained by Dr Marthese Portelli, CEO of The Malta Chamber, another important proposal is that of treating "berthed and visiting yachts in Malta's-marinas in the same manner as tourism accommodation in so far as the 7% tourism VAT rate should apply also to berthing services, agency fees, provisioning and expenses relating to the preparation of yachts embarking on charters".
Louisa Galea, a Provision Specialist with No 12 Wines, suggested that Malta needs to also focus on becoming an event centre through the organisation of boat shows or regattas thereby putting Malta on the map in the yachting calendar.
Malta is currently an alternative destination of choice and that poses an opportunity. Of critical importance is the experience of superyacht owners, captains and crew members in Malta, which would in turn be fundamental in their referral. Matthew Gusman from Gusman Yachts, added that it is also vital for Malta to adopt a national policy on yachting, recognising yachting for the important sector it really is.
Onno Ebbens, Managing Director of Acrew explained that a superyacht can bring an average of EUR 50,000 a week to the local economy, and can guarantee increased berthing potential as well as refit potential. Malta's focus on becoming a good center of excellence in the superyacht industry is therefore important as the input for the local economy would be extensive.
In conclusion, it was agreed that all stakeholders in the superyacht industry in Malta are certainly committed to working on all the above-mentioned key points so that they can continue veering the superyacht market towards Malta.
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