Cancellation Liverpool Show
Marine Industry Events (MIE), the organiser of the 2011 Liverpool Boat Show, has announced the cancellation of the inaugural event. MIE cited the damaging effects of the economic climate in the leisure marine sector impacting on exhibitor take-up for the event and said the integrity of the long-term potential for a major boat show in Liverpool needed to be protected.
Rob Mackenzie, Managing Director of MIE, said: “Our decision is obviously appalling news and it has been an extremely difficult decision to take, not least because of the enormous sense of responsibility and partnership we feel for everyone in Liverpool. The city council and its corporate partners, British Waterways, Liverpool Marina, Albert Dock Liverpool and the local sailing community have worked very hard to support this project.”
“The failure and the financial loss and its consequences is MIE’s to bear alone, but it is better to cancel the show to protect Liverpool’s reputation rather than to allow exhibitors who booked in good faith and visitors who would have travelled from all over the country in expectation of the participation of brands who’d made late decisions not to take part. More than anything else, we’ve cancelled the show to protect the integrity of what we know to be the enormous long term potential for a major Boat Show in Liverpool.”
Successful Launch
The organisers report that the Liverpool Boat Show was launched eighteen months ago and enjoyed strong support from many of the major marine brands. The concept of a major national event based in the North and serving the wealthy and rapidly expanding sailing and watersports communities around the Irish Sea was widely welcomed by the specialist marine press.
Martket Sentiment
However from late November 2010, market sentiment about the economic outlook deteriorated rapidly affecting confidence in boat manufacturers, dealers, smaller retailers and traders. This negative trend accelerated sharply in late January, with many contracted exhibitors citing a commercially disastrous London Boat Show as the catalyst for their decisions to withdraw from Liverpool, said Mr Mackenzie.
Mr Mackenzie added: “So many of the marine industry’s key players and its press have now seen and understood the unique possibilities of a Liverpool Boat Show, and it is only the consequence of disastrous market conditions which have forced the industry to draw back from embracing the concept fully. That long term prize will now fall to organisations other than MIE to deliver. After a period of reflection, and when the market improves, I believe the industry will collectively recognise the strategic opportunity missed and Liverpool will eventually stage the uniquely vibrant boat show we have tried so very hard to bring to the city.”