Yachting Industry to Accelerate Development of Tourism Industry and Job Market   ( 2013/11/15 )

In the last entry of Blog of Baroque “The Emerging Yachting Industry in Asia Pacific, A Golden Opportunity for Hong Kong”, we have introduced the development trend and economic contributions of yachting industry. This time we would like to share with you the possible benefits to Hong Kong’s tourism and job market bring upon by developing local yachting industry.

Taking the featured article of “The Four Key Industries and Other Selected Industries in the Hong Kong Economy” by Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics published in April 2013 as reference, Hong Kong economy nowadays is mainly supported by four major industries including financial services, trading and logistics, industrial and business professionals and tourism, their shares in Hong Kong Gross Domestic Product has risen from 49.3% in 2001 to 58.5% in 2011. However, our leading position in the above-mentioned industries has been threatened by Singapore, Shanghai and other coastal cities in Mainland China. Therefore, Hong Kong should accelerate the development in industries with high potential in future growth in order to infuse new vigor into our economy.

Though the yachting industry in China and the Asia Pacific region is developing rapidly in recent years, the situation in Hong Kong is lagging far behind. The main reason for the stagnant development of Hong Kong yachting industry in recent years is not because of the shortage of yacht buyers, but rather the shortage of berths and yachting professionals. The lack of suitable facilities and support also prevent international yachting competition to come to Hong Kong. Therefore, by confronting and addressing to the related problems, Hong Kong will surely benefit from the industry in the long run, at the same time bringing new vitality to the growth of tourism industry in Hong Kong. Taking Sanya Hainan as an example, their yachting, tourism and relative industries develop rapidly thanks to the intense promotion by the local government. The Hainan Rendez-Vous, which was held for the fourth consecutive year in Sanya Hainan, has also become one of the major yacht shows in Asia Pacific, with up to 20,000 visitors recorded in 2013 and yacht orders equivalent to around RMB 1 billion dollars during the event. Last year, Sanya Hainan was selected as the China stopover for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, which attracted more than 200,000 visitors to the Race Village, among them 15,000 were foreigners. Yachts sold during the event amounted to RMB 200 million dollars. The economic contributions to Hainan brought about by these two mega events were enormous, and at the same time help lift-up the city’s international status. As for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15, Sanya Hainan was once again selected as the stopover in China, the winning factors being appropriate yachting infrastructures and enormous support from the local government. Should the above mentioned mega events happen in Hong Kong, a considerable number of tourists with high purchasing power will be attracted to the city, bringing enormous benefits to the hotel and hospitality industries.

Unfortunately, the yachting industry in recent years is facing the problem of lack of new blood. Most of the yacht crews in service are hired from the fishery industry or recruited from sea schools. However, along with the increase in yacht size and cruising distance as well as the growing number of yachts in China, the demand of well-trained yachting professionals with Mandarin language proficiency has grown further. If only Hong Kong can accelerate the development of yachting industry and provide proper yachting crew training, interested job seekers can take advantages of the new opportunities. Furthermore, yacht crew with global exposure and broad horizons, as well as the experience of serving important guests can easily seek to enter the hotel and clubhouse service industry and further expand their career choices. On the other hand, job opportunities from various supporting services such as management, maintenance and charter will also be driven by a vigorous yachting industry. As a rule of thumb, the annual expense of a yacht can be 10 percent of its value and if only a portion of this is opened to Hong Kong, this shall contribute a great deal to the strengthening of Hong Kong’s economy and job market.

All in all the development of the yachting industry is expected to endow Hong Kong with more diversified opportunities in the job market, and contribute enormously to the tourism industry and local economy. Together with the existing well-develop infrastructure, Hong Kong can be expected to take up a major share of this immense market.






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