That National Marine Manufacturers Association said its Discover Boating boat shows in Atlanta, Chicago and New England during the second week of January drew more than 60,000 visitors, with encouraging sales reports.
“We are very pleased,” JJ Bauman, central regional sales manager for Cobalt Boats and an exhibitor at Chicago, said in a statement. “We sold more boats at the 2024 Chicago Boat Show than the previous year. Our dealer secured more space and displayed more boats than last year. We definitely feel the premium buyer was in attendance this year — 2024 was a good show.”
MarineMax district president Kyle Roney said the company returned to the Atlanta show after being absent for a few years. “The 2024 boat show brought in an abundance of boaters of every kind, providing us a tremendous platform to showcase our brands,” he said.
Wolfeboro Boats made its debut as an exhibitor at the New England Boat Show in Boston, which was held about a month earlier than it has taken place in previous years. “The quality of attendees surpassed our expectations, with a diverse mix of enthusiastic buyers,” said Nate Drouin, partner at Wolfeboro Boats. “We were pleased with the positive interactions and promising leads.”
Dealers from Maine said they had decent experiences at the New England show, but felt buyers weren’t as motivated as they had seen in the past.
“We saw decent traffic at the 2024 New England Boat Show,” Will Monson, general sales manager at Moose Landing Marina, told Trade Only Today. “Our sales crew worked hard to pull commitments from buyers, and overall we had a successful show. With the early dates this year, I think many people were still thinking winter and not yet in the boating spirit.”
Rob Soucy, president of Port Harbor Marine, which has six locations in Maine and Massachusetts, said the company had a good show. “It was a little bit less than we had hoped for, but if you look at previous shows, it was still successful,” he said.
Soucy said attendees who visited the Port Harbor booth were enthusiastic. “Interest rates didn’t seem to be an issue,” he said. “People weren’t complaining. They just weren’t ready to buy.”
