No Nautic en Seine in 2024
At a board meeting held on January 29, 2024, the French Nautical Industries Federation - FIN - decided to postpone the 1st edition of Nautic en Seine, the new version of the Paris boat show, now located in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts de Seine. Initially scheduled for October 2024, the show will now be held in spring 2025, on a date to be announced at an official launch on February 8, 2024.
In view of the feedback from the industry, which we were also able to observe in the aisles of Boot Düsseldorf 2024, it now seemed impossible to maintain a show in October, directly following the Cannes, La Rochelle and Southampton shows, at the same time as the Barcelona show and the Vendée Globe start village.
A crucial first edition
Despite a lot of hard work upstream, setting the date turned out to be more complex than expected. While there was still time, FIN chose to readjust the date, as its president Jean-Paul Chapeleau explains: "Since the first working groups in the spring of 2023, we had always talked about October 2024. The builders had always had a doubt about the date, but without having a perfect solution. We decided to launch Nautic en Seine for October, in the absence of a 100% position against it. This enabled us to get positive feedback from all the trades. Düsseldorf enabled us to review the situation with the builders, which augured a poor presence in terms of quantity of boats. And yet, a first show must be a success if it is to survive. That's why we unanimously decided to postpone the show to spring 2025, at a date to be checked with the local authorities."
The economic context also made it difficult to hold the show," emphasizes Jean-Paul Chapeleau: "Companies are cautious about 2024. There's a search for savings with complicated situations and destocking to be done."
Points to work on
The delay should also allow the organization to rework points raised by potential exhibitors, some of whom pointed to high fees. The FIN president concedes: "There have been discussions. There is still some progress to be made, as the equation is difficult and not in line with everyone's expectations. We're still in a much better position than at the Porte de Versailles."
