State of the Yacht Charter Market in 2024

The past five years have presented a series of unique challenges for the industry. From the aftermath of a global pandemic to international conflicts, travel restrictions, government funding cuts, and soaring costs - these hurdles have tested the resilience of countless organizations. Yet, despite the turbulence, the data tells a different story - one that's far from bleak. In fact, it reveals unexpected resilience and emerging opportunities that signal a promising future.

The market started showing signs at the beginning of 2023 at least in some areas of the Med that the fastest way to consolidate and expand the business was through acquisition. 2024 confirmed the trend both on the charter operators and the agency side with large mergers happening between market players.

Since 2021, the data shows a drastic reduction in incentives and funds from the government for the purchase of new boats. The apparent consequence is that the number of new boats in the charter fleets is slowly but steadily decreasing. The only exception was Croatia, where the number of new boats bounced back right after covid, thanks to the destination’s increased popularity and the Croatian government’s investments in advertisement and promotion.
The percentage of new boats in Croatia is still the highest in the Med but is still confirming the trend of a decrease overall.

There are currently no surprises on the catamaran versus monohull front, where catamarans keep having a better occupancy rate at 85% in peak season compared to Sailing Yachts' 75%.

This data combined with the increase in demand for professional crew confirms the shift in the client base for a boating type of holiday, which proved the most reselient one in the tourism sector during Covid. The product now is more diversified than 10 years ago, but simultaneously being more and more similar to a holiday package than just renting a boat as it once used to be.

On the other hand, the commercialisation of this type of product still requires a specialised agent and many non-specialised travel agencies which try to enter the market, usually still encounter short-term and long-term bariers due to the high specificity of the product.

Yet again the report shows that Bavaria and Lagoon brands still lead the market as the most popular ones. Bavaria Cruiser 46, is once more the most booked monohull along side with the Sun Odyssey 40 and the Bavaria 50 models. The Lagoon 42 is the most popular catamaran, whereas the Lagoon 620 model even thou not the most common model in the market, it proves to have one of the best occupancy rate.

The 4 cabin 4 head configuration in monohulls seems to be the most frequent choice by customers, as a concequence of the family sailing trip approach that has become more and more common in the past few years.

Noticeable change in what has been a constant in the past 10 years in the sector, with agents slowly but surely losing small pieces of market shares in favour of direct booking either as a result of marketing efforts of charter operators or as a consequence of the impact of a negative advertisement made to the detriment of onlone platforms.

More traditional agents and well-established online players are the engine driving the market towards tighter regulation and are still keeping the online boat rental bubble from bursting. This is just one of the symptoms of an increased divide in the approach between different types of agencies. Newer agents aiming to gain market share by using price war approach with high volume with less commission and the traditional agent focusing on quality of the service and clinging to more high-value clients with greater commission returns within a smaller volume.

Despite a challenging high-season in the Med, globally there was an incremental increase in bookings. The average spending basket keeps increasing currently averaging over 6000€. Inflation and high demand are undoubtly sustaining this trend in more than several charter destinations.

The focus has been also on the quality of the provider. Overall with a noticeably better occupancy rate for charter operators which have been able to establish a reputation for themselves of being excellent service providers.

The turism sector overall is surging, with a double digit growth for destinations like Spain and Greece in 2024, while Croatia seems to be slowly loosing small bits of its market share. Overall the average price of the charter itself in Croatia is not so distant from neighbouring countries in the Med but the services sourrinding the charter are making it more and more expensive therefore less and less appealing for turists.