Pizzardini has also noted a change in the attitudes of potential superyacht buyers as a result of the global pandemic.Ī photograph shows moored yachts at the Hercules Port in Monaco during the 31st edition of the International Monaco Yacht Show on Thursday. 'We're still seeing a lot of that, and I think that's something that will continue. 'People are thinking, 'We're not going to wait 10 years.' They were coming out of nowhere and buying a 60-meter (yacht),' he said. 'It (the pandemic) inspired people who were always thinking about buying a yacht,' Bob Denison, president and founder of Fort Lauderdale-based yacht brokerage Denison Yachting, which has four boats on display at the show, tells CNN Travel. This reflects a growing trend that developed significantly during the pandemic, when a vast number of new buyers opted to go big rather than work their way up from a smaller yacht. Some of the huge yachts throwing out their mooring ropes, including the 62-meter Rio from Italian shipbuilder CRN and Tankoa Yachts' 164-foot Kinda, belong to first-time yacht buyers. There are around 40 brand new luxury yachts this year, including the massive 115.1-meter AHPO, the largest superyacht ever exhibited here.

It is, as Pizzardini acknowledges, a 'niche market.' But one that shows little signs of slowing down, despite turbulent times. Every year, during normal times, an estimated 30,000 people descend on this tiny Mediterranean Riviera country to view the astounding spectacle of some of the biggest and most expensive superyachts in the world assembled in one place.Īnd while the event is undoubtedly an opportunity for wealthy boat owners to let their hair down in a safe space, sequestered away from the non-yacht-owning world, it's also a chance to go shopping for yet more ocean-going opulence.

The show is specifically dedicated to the superyacht market. The superyacht crowd were out in force, too. Some 118 superyachts were among the luxury vessels on display in the country's Port Hercule. 'All of the boats are here,' Johan Pizzardini, head of communications and media for the Monaco Yacht Show, told CNN Travel on the eve of the four-day event's grand finale. And no amount of geopolitical anxiety could tarnish the glitz. This week, superyachts with a combined value of somewhere near $3.8 billion gathered together in the azure waters of the tiny European principality for the 31st annual Monaco Yacht Show. But in Monaco, at the yachting world's most glamorous event, it's business as usual. Energy prices are putting the squeeze on millions. The specter of global conflict lurks on the horizon.

Hercules table saw