Biggest water sports trade fair in the world is the driving force behind the industry | 6th year in a row of water sports sector growth | Trend sports and diving are crowd pullers

The exhibitors at and organisers of boot Düsseldorf 2019 were in high spirits throughout the nine days of the event. The trade fair, which ended on Sunday, reports that business was good and that contacts to water sports enthusiasts and trade visitors from all over the world were excellent. Messe Düsseldorf CEO Werner Matthias Dornscheidt summarises his impressions as follows: “I have experienced numerous events here in Düsseldorf, but this boot was unique. A tremendous atmosphere in the halls, people in holiday mood on the stands and highly satisfied exhibitors. Which means that we definitely reached our objective: everyone will have outstanding memories of this marvellous anniversary edition of boot.”

boot 2019 set a new record, with almost 2,000 exhibitors from 73 countries and displays covering 220,000 m² of stand space. Nearly 250,000 water sports fans (boot 2018: 247,000 visitors) came to Düsseldorf from over 100 countries: clear confirmation of the position boot holds as the leading event anywhere in the world. Their main home countries – apart from Germany – are the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy. boot Director Petros Michelidakis explains: "The exhibitors tell us about great business and many new contacts all over the world. The boot is clearly a first-class business platform. The wide range of international travel destinations in the Travel World also attracted many visitors.”

Jürgen Tracht, Director of the Association of the German Water Sports Industry (BVWW) and a community expert, is very upbeat: “The industry is extremely optimistic about the forthcoming water sports season”. He reveals that there is a trend towards not only larger boats more than 12 metres long but also very agile smaller ones – where both motorboats and sailing yachts are concerned. He points out that there is strong demand for multihull boats as well, a trend that was very obvious in Hall 15 at boot. Tracht adds: “I expect boot 2019 to act as a stimulant and driving force for all areas of the water sports industry. Our corporate members were enthusiastic about the impressively international origins and high quality of the visitors.”

boot has no difficulty in being an event not just for B2B visitors from the industry, on the one hand, but also for the presentation of trend sports for the public, on the other hand. Decision-makers from major chartering companies, for example, use the trade fair to obtain a comprehensive insight into the market, to establish direct contact with the manufacturers and to make comparisons between them. To an increasing extent too, because chartering is becoming more and more popular with boot visitors and is a genuine trend in the industry. Anyone interested in chartering was spoiled for choice, with 1,500 sailing yachts and motorboats exhibited on the stands. So potential charterers were able to take a look at a wide range of holiday boats and decide exactly what they wanted directly at the trade fair.

There was a further increase in recreational diving and trend sport exhibits at boot Düsseldorf and they proved to be reliable crowd pullers. 100,000 surfing enthusiasts watched the sensational surfing demonstrations on “THE WAVE”. Numerous suppliers of boards report that visitors are rediscovering the fun surfing has to offer. Stand-up paddling, windsurfing, surfing or wakeboarding captured the visitors’ imagination, while people were fascinated by the contests on “THE WAVE” or in the flat water pool too.

The diving conditions and atmosphere in the Dive Center and the entire diving hall were excellent from the first day onwards too. Michelidakis: “boot is the event of the year for the diving community. This is where diving trips are planned, diving partners are found and the latest equipment is tested.”

boot will be starting its next decade from 18. to 26. January 2020 and will be preceding this in December 2019 with a party for its famous ship crane “Big Willi”: the strongest member of the trade fair team is celebrating its 40th birthday.