It used to be that private yacht charter was the world’s best-kept holiday secret - a getaway accessible only to the privileged few in the know. But if the bookings figures that MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association has shared exclusively with BOAT International are any indication, the secret is well and truly out.
In nine years of MYBA data - gleaned front its YACHTFOLIO database - charter bookings increased 138 per cent from 5,067 in 2015 to 12,074 in 2023- Each year shows steady growth but an unexpected push came front the pandemic.
“We almost doubled [bookings] during Covid-19 years,” says Raphael Sauleau, CEO of IYC and current president of MYBA. Yachting stole the spotlight when resorts were closed and received a lot of exposure in both mainstream and social media. “We attracted a lot of people who had not necessarily thought about a yacht but rather had stayed in a five- and six-star resort and then they tried yachting and they realised, 'Well, there’s nothing better,”’ says Sauleau. “During that period there was traditional money but also a lot of new money. So we saw an increase post-Covid that is still happening.”
That growth has affected all facets of the business. More yachts and more charterers mean greater competition between yachts when it comes to toys, amenities and crew, longer seasons, new cruising grounds and a wider demographic of charter guest.
Who is chartering?
Nearly every broker we spoke to from a dozen brokerage houses around the world confirmed that their clients are getting younger.
