Miami boat show falls short of attendance goal

MIAMI, Fla. – The 63rd Miami International Boat Show ended Tuesday with nearly the same number of visitors as the 2003 event, according to a story in today’s, Miami Herald .

”We’re running dead even with last year – about 138,000 – in attendance, but the quality of customer seems to be really good,” said Cathy Johnston, southern regional manager of the show’s host, the National Marine Manufacturers Association.

Johnston said approximately 300 more people attended the show this year than did in 2003.

Several vendors said sales this year had exceeded their expectations at the six-day expo, according to the article.

”It’s the best boat show I’ve ever had, hands down,” said Ned L. Dozier II, sales representative of The Yacht Group of Maryland, which sells Riviera and Jefferson Yachts. “All the people I had hanging on last year are buying this year.”

Guy Desjardins, Fort Lauderdale sales representative of SunDance Marina, was also quoted in the story, saying he had no complaints.

”We’ve been doing very, very well,” he said. Models in the 40-foot, $250,000 range were hits, he said.

But show organizers did not reach their goal of 150,000 visitors to the show, which had more than 2,300 exhibitors, according to the newspaper.

”We still feel really good about the show. It went really well,” Johnston said. “Some of the accessory guys, who really count on volume, felt it was a bit lighter.”

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