Round Up: HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show The 5 day show went well as a first time exhibitor in Amsterdam So 2018 marked our first ever attendance at the HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show held at the RAI just outside the centre of Amsterdam city. As you may know, Sail Ionian have been looking to expand outside the realms of British customers in order to explore new avenues for the future of the company. With more and more flights across Europe arriving in to Preveza airport, we would be foolish not to! There are now daily arrivals for various countries including Holland, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany... and more. So our potential audience is huge. So with the team having exhibited at the London & Southampton Boat Shows for the previous god knows how many years, it seemed natural that a boat show abroad was the way to go. Boat shows are planned months in advance to get a good deal on the stand, even get a stand (shows are very popular for obvious reasons) and for logistical reasons. We decided in 2018 to exhibit at the Dusseldorf BOOT boat show and also the Amsterdam HISWA boat show. 2 very different shows of different interests, different sizes and different audiences but both worth trying out. The Dusseldorf BOOT was a 10 day show at the end of January. Spread over 18 halls and attracting over 250,000 visitors from 90 countries around the globe, this show reflects the entire world market and no other show has figures this unique for the industry. The HISWA in Amsterdam was a 5 day show last week Wednesday to Sunday with an estimated 35,000 visitors. Although a smaller show, there were still an impressive 7 halls of exhibitors ranging from the national sailing magazine to the rope stand to 'sloeps' (canal boats) to Sail Ionian. With a limited number of companies exhibiting like Sail Ionian, we stood a good chance of a successful show. The other yacht charter companies were agents as opposed to selling their own fleet of boats like we do so the uniqueness of what we had to offer attracted a lot of attention from the multiple nationalities of visitors. Although the vast majority were Dutch, we also had interest from Australians, Germans & English to name a few. From our research and knowledge of sailors in the Ionian, we knew that the Dutch market are particularly interested in Flotilla sailing and mainly like the support of mooring in the evening and then the flexibility of doing their own thing for dinner. Our Informal Flotilla option went down a treat with the lenient time to be in port each day, an adaptable route depending on who is on the flotilla and a helpful approach to mooring up. Wednesday to Friday were understandably quieter than the weekend but over the 5 days we spoke to countless people, handed out hundreds of brochures and the Dutch are particularly partial to a Sail Ionian tote bag! Overall - a success! Spreading the name 'Sail Ionian' across a new market went well, we are now a familiar name among the sailing community that visited the show... NEXT STOP - London On The Water Show held at St Katharine Docks, London from Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th May 2018! This post was written by admin