7th Mediterranean Yacht Show: Very good year for yachting

The optimism for 2022 being a very good for Yachting, if all goes as expected, was confirmed in the first days of the exhibition of crewed yachts in Nafplio (7th Mediterranean Yacht Show-MEDYS 2022) organized for the period 30 / 4-4 / 5 by the Greek Maritime Tourism Association (GYA) in collaboration with the Municipality of Nafplio.

As stressed at the opening of the exhibition, the president of the Maritime Tourism Association Mr. Michalis Skoulikidis the 7th MEDYS is a major event, the largest charter exhibition in the world in terms of number and length of participating boats. In Greece the heavy industry is tourism and fortunately it is developing. Maritime tourism being the vanguard benefits from the islands, the coasts, the unique seas and the amazing weather. That is why Greece is rightly globally considered the yachting paradise, he added.

He then explained that 90 very large boats are participating in Nafplio and because the port was full, 20 boats were put on a waiting list. We have 550% more boats, bigger in length and better than all the boats that France, Italy and Spain managed to exhibit together, at the corresponding MYBA exhibition in Barcelona which with only 16 boats coverede the Central and Western Mediterranean. MYBA ended a few days before the start of MEDYS in Nafplio and .

Proficiency

This shows Mr. Skoulikidis stressed the absolute proficiency of boats with Greek Professional License in terms of both quantity and quality and that we have no need for help from boats with a foreign flag.

At this point, the president of the Hellenic Maritime Tourism Association underlined once again his opposition to the provisions of the recent law on yachts that create, as he supported, unfair competition from foreign-flagged vessels for vessels with a Greek Professional License. There will be an escape of boats over 35 meters from the Greek professional license and the Greek flag, he estimated

Finally, according to Mr. Skoulikidis, for the further development of maritime tourism there should be additional promotional activities such as the participation of EOT in sectoral exhibitions abroad for crewed boats, the advertising of Greek Maritime Tourism in international specialized publications by EOT the active participation of the Maritime Tourism Association, which has the knowledge of the international yachting market, in the decisions for the distribution of this advertisement. They also propose the creation of a National Yachting Council, the fight against illegal charters, the avoidance of fragmentary and unsubstantiated decisions, etc.