Yachting: a major regional sector
With 30 marinas and nearly 28 000 berths, Occitania is home to 19% of the berths available in France. Yachting concerns both the inhabitants and a clientele of regional, national and international tourists. With nearly 1,400 companies and establishments and more than 600 million euros in turnover, the nautical sector is an essential sector of the coastal economy in Occitania.
A boating recovery plan
From the very beginning of the health crisis, the Region wanted to take measures to support the sector, working on 3 time scales
- The urgency: providing the best possible support to players to overcome the weeks of activity closures
- Recovery: starting work quickly to restore medium-term prospects
- The transformation of the sector: considering new ways of responding to longer-term needs.
In addition to the national emergency measures, the Occitania Region voted in July 2020 for a "nautical and pleasure boating" recovery plan, with an initial specific budget of 500,000 euros.
9 Priorities for yachting
This plan is based on 9 priorities:
- Supporting the ports towards the ecological and energy transition, notably through the Clean Ports certification of 20 seaports before the end of 2021 and the launch of work on green energy autonomy
- Innovation to accelerate ecological and virtuous mobility and to digitalize the nautical sector. Concept of "Green Boating
- Accompanying companies to major boat shows
- The promotion of know-how to strengthen the attractiveness of the region for companies
- A better promotion of nautical professions, especially among young people
- The valorisation of the lessons learned from the strategic study "Marinas" carried out in the regional operation Coastal Plan 21
- The development of digital and digital in the ports ;
- The training of port staff to develop their skills, in line with the new needs expressed
- The improvement of the attractiveness of the ports
Actions already carried out
The Occitania Region has already participated in several actions since the announcement of the plan:
- Implementation in January 2021 of an University Diploma "Port Manager"
- Support for participation in the Virtual Nautic boat show (Regional aid of 15 000 euros) ;
- Financial support for the Canet used multihull boat show from 15 to 28 October 2020
- Support for the ecological transition with the BIOBAT project, led by Outremer Yachting, on a research and development approach aimed at studying the integration of bio-sourced materials and/or materials from a circular economy into their boats
- 120,000 envelope for regional boat shows for 2021
