2:47 AM Mon 18 May 2009 GMT

South Korea is setting itself up to become the number one leisure marine industry gateway for the Far East. The second Korea International Boat Show is to take place this year from 3rd-7th June at Jeongok Harbour, in Gyeonggi Province, near Seoul. Jeongok now has a newly-completed 120 berth marina, opening in May in time for the 2009 boat show.

Korea International Boat Show is owned by Gyeonggi Provincial Government, which supports the event to promote the growth of leisure marine activity as part of the development of tourism in their coastal regions in the province. Due to past tension with North Korea, much of the coastline is undeveloped, but recent economic co-operation between North and South Korea has resulted in the de-militarisation of the coast offering a unique blank canvas for leisure development.

In its first year, the show received over 350,000 visitors, making it instantly one of the world’s most highly attended boat shows (compare this to 112,000 for this year’s London Boat Show or even 238,000 for Dusseldorf, Europe’s biggest boat show). This is hardly surprising, with a local population of over 22 million living within 50 miles of the boat show site hungry for new leisure activities. With a total exhibition area of 170,000sqm (three quarters the size of Dusseldorf), in air conditioned halls, outside display areas and a temporary marina, 240 companies exhibited from over 30 countries in 2008.

The Korea International Boat Show (KIBS) in 2008 proved highly successful for exhibitors. ‘Fairline exhibited at KIBS2008 and were hugely impressed,’ says Bryan Jones, President Fairline Boats Asia. ‘This show is one of the very best in the region. We achieved our goals and appointed a high quality dealer. We will be back in 2009.’

Mary Anne Edwards, Chief Executive of Australian International Marine Export Group provides another perspective: ‘The Australian Marine Export Group were impressed by the organization and efforts put into the 2008 boat show, the support given to exhibitors in terms of free accommodation, transfers and freight made it a cost effective show for the companies that exhibited. The plan to host a conference alongside the show in 2009 would certainly provide extra value to exhibitors.’

The Far East’s marine industry hub

Korea is a natural hub for marine companies to market themselves in the Far East, as it is just a short flight from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and China.

A significant attraction for those thinking of exhibiting at Korea International Boat Show 2009 is that many of the emerging markets in the region have been less affected by the global economic downturn, with forecasts for neighbouring China, for example, still anticipating 6% growth for 2009. Korea itself is expected to be one of the first countries to recover from the crisis thanks to strong foreign currency reserves and its major industries being well positioned to realign to market changes.

While Korea is a leading manufacturing nation (number one in the world for example in shipbuilding, flat screen televisions and semi-conductors), she and her neighbours represent almost virgin territory for the international marine industry. While boating activity has been developing strongly for the past four years, the number of leisure craft over 5m LOA in the region, excluding the Gulf States and Japan, is still only just below 30,000. However demand is steadily growing.

With a population of 48 million and an average wage of US$25,000 South Korea has a growing middle class with increasing amounts of disposable income. Recently government legislation has created a shorter five day working week, so Koreans now find themselves with increased leisure time at the same time as the opening up of the coastline.

Private leisure boaters are now not only permitted to go to sea, but have thousands of miles of beautiful, untouched coastline available to them. For the regional governments that own this coastline, this represents a vast potential for tourism and recreational developments, including leisure boating. Already there are projects in place to build a series of marinas around the Korean coastline. Both Central and Provincial governments in Korea place huge importance on sustainable growth and such infrastructure developments are high on their agenda.

Show attractions

To help engender interest in Korea International Boat Show, the organisers have gone out of their way to entice visitors not only from Korea, but from across the Far East. Alongside the boat show is a marine festival featuring lifestyle events, concerts and attractions geared to promoting the leisure boating life style.

To inject a sporting flavour while also giving the show added news impetus, it runs in conjunction with a round of the World Match Racing Tour, held directly off the show marina. In this top international event, stars of yacht racing compete for the largest prize purse on offer in the 11 event series. All these features aim to introduce Korea’s large middle class to the pleasures of leisure boating, from canoes to large yachts.

Conference

An important new feature for the Korea International Boat Show this year will be a high level, two day marine industry conference to be held over 4-5 June. This will focus on the needs and interests of the industry in the Far East. International speakers will be presenting on subjects to include the latest manufacturing techniques, design trends, efficient manufacture, research and development, marketing and advertising, inventory control, infrastructure development and outsourcing. Many will remember the successful Boat Tech Asia conference held in China in 2004. The KIBS conference organisers intend that their event will be better and more informative. Delegates are expected to attend from Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and the Gulf.

A key part of the conference program will be a separate business-to-business area of the show, not open to the general public. This will create a unique opportunity for those companies with products and services relating to infrastructure and industry development or companies looking for new outlets in the region to show case to professional industry buyers.

Not only will the conference provide an added an incentive for overseas exhibitors with the prospect of a high quality regional audience, it will also substantially widen the reach of the show across the Far East.

Incentives

With the organisers offering attractive incentives for overseas companies and conference delegates to attend, Korea International Boat Show offers a unique gateway into the world’s leading emerging market – an opportunity that should not be missed in times where new market opportunities could represent a lifeline for survival for many marine companies.

More info: www.koreaboatshow.org