YTM: What is the future of yachting? 

The future of yachting will be tightly linked to the future of the luxury industry in general. Two major challenges for this particular industry are sustainability and technological disruptions. 

On the technological end, new millennial communities of HNWI are emerging to which the yachting industry might want to pay closer attention. 

Yachting professionals will have to learn to address these new clients differently, beyond social networks, and take a deep dive in the post Web2 world, being metaverse or anything else. NFTs are starting to create value from digital assets by ascribing property rights to them while parallel innovations swear on the demise of Web2 platforms to empower individuals with their personal data. 

It is hard to picture a yacht in a phygital Web3 world but some pioneering hybrid yacht brokerages already do. Concretely, you might step from the virtual to the physical experience in the blink of an eye. This might be the future of omnichannel strategies. 

The luxury client profile may dramatically metamorphose, and the yachting industry must heed this shift. 

As for the sustainable challenge, there are many paradoxes to reconcile. Yachts are infamously on the dark side along with jets and cars. However, technology is striving to make yachts and cars cleaner. Charter yachts can also drive a more sustainable approach to the ocean as captains and crews are best positioned to testify and educate while creating a new familiarity with the ocean. At the end of the day, the future of the ocean determines the future of yachting. 

YTM: What are the next trends in yacht chartering? 

Expeditions and family charters. Yacht chartering is first and foremost an experience. The trend is that value increases with emotion and relationality. Family has become a rare and precious experience of reconnection: our life in the global village is more complex and our family life reflects this fragmented evolution. Expeditions also mean rediscovering our habitat and its sublimity. Only yachts can reach remote places or hidden coves. The yacht watches the earth from the oceans, the seas and the rivers with an incredible proximity: maybe we need a change of perspective. 

Overall, the future of yachting sounds exciting as the dream-value of the luxury industry is increasing, especially post-crisis. The luxury industry is a safe bet for new generations of investors as well because of its anti-fragility: it literally creates positive value and gets stronger through negative circumstances. Recently, Ferrari and Hermes redistributed value directly to employees after a successful post-Covid year. 

Likewise, as long as the value of the Ocean is protected, the yachting industry can thrive healthily and sustain a dream-filled “blue growth”. 

Thank you Liza for this insightful interview about the future of yachting, the Yachting Times Magazine team wishes you good luck in all your yachting projects!