Superyacht leaders share insights at Metstrade
The two-day Superyacht Forum held at Metstrade 2025 in Amsterdam gathered nearly 900 leaders to review new research and examine the key trends.
A keynote featuring research from Superyacht Life and the Superyacht Builders Association revealed the segment’s €54 billion global economic impact annually, and reinforced the importance of the work of the 900 delegates attending.
Dilan Saraç, executive director of the Superyacht Life Foundation, outlined the range of direct and indirect benefits from the build and operation of superyachts. Fleet usage accounts for one-half of the estimated €54 billion global benefit. This means each of the 6,000 superyachts in operation around the world contributes €9 million to the economy.
Looking ahead
Baxter Underwood, chief executive officer at U.S.-headquartered marina and shipyard group Safe Harbor, provided further reasons for the industry to be confident.
In a live Q&A from New York with Martin Redmayne, chairman and editor in chief of The Superyacht Group, he reflected on a five-times increase in the number of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals over the last 20 years, producing a three-times growth increase in willingness to spend on luxury experiences and luxury goods. He said this indicates considerable tailwinds that the superyacht industry should be taking advantage of.
“The tailwinds that I spoke about are going to make customers available to us,” he said, addressing the next 10 years. “If we can scale up and innovate now, we should see growth in orders of the magnitude three to five times.”
Key challenges
The Superyacht Forum’s audience-engaged panels addressed many of the key issues for the immediate future, from ways to use superyachts for humanitarian purposes to how the industry should respond to the IMO’s decision to push its Net Zero Framework back after direct intervention from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Human factors were again high on the agenda with sessions on crew well-being and recruitment and an in-depth look at the role of the owner’s representative in refits. The growth of digitalization onboard was also examined, from advantages and implications to security and operational changes.
Preservation was considered in a presentation on marine conservation, while a highly topical panel considered how to design superyachts and standards of operation for increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
“These two days have seen an incredible amount of engagement among the nearly 900 senior leaders present,” said Patricia Becker, conference manager. “Key messages from the 2025 edition of The Superyacht Forum indicate just how vital it is for this important industry sector to collaborate for success.”
