A new vision of the nautical industry

Lorenzo Pollicardo, Nautica Italiana’s general secretary, recently discussed the possible outcomes for the Italian nautical industry, boat shows and exhibitions in Italy, and the relationship with national politics.
Nautica Italiana, being export-oriented, is gaining an insight of how the Italian nautical industry is being perceived by the foreign market: even though the sector has been facing a crisis in recent years, there are very positive signals from abroad for the future of Italian products. Nonetheless, according to Pollicardo, much work has to be done to enhance the domestic demand: the industry should be able to rely on strong roots in an internal market.
The association nowadays counts 54 member brands, whose turnover is about 65% (80% for shipyards), more than other companies linked to same sector that are not associated. Such remaining companies are the smallest and less used to take part in the international market: if they do not unite in a common strategy, they might be suffering more the crisis. Here’s why the entire nautical field should be reconsidered: we can no longer think of it as a mere industry, it is also a complex system of territorial services. The so-called ‘yacht industry’ relies on a territorial network of related minor sectors, which allow to provide overall excellent services to a mainly foreign clientele.
All successful leader companies have their own network of collaborating agencies, often smaller family businesses, but also including new-generation start-ups for more innovative activities such as smarthome technology. Such an approach is of utmost importance, and it is still an urgent need for most of the smaller companies: one of the most important aims of Nautica Italiana is to get the Italian companies to work in an integrated way and to generate more effective synergies.
As for now, the strength of the Italian nautical industry is the uncontested excellence of the ‘Made in Italy’: its weekness is the general inability to promote it in the right way, to make it even more competitive and appealing for the global and domestic market. The Alta Gamma affiliation is then to be interpreted as the will to replicate its successful networking approach to excellence in all the nautical-related sectors.
Concerning the relationship between industry and national politics, Policardo believes that there should be more collaboration rather than the current apparent opposition. Again, the State and the industry should be working together, as it happens successfully in countries like the Netherlands, Germany or the United Kingdom.
In the event strategy which is encouraged by Nautica Italiana, there is great confidence on what Italy has to offer: leader yacht builders, accessories, wonderful coastal areas and an excellent touristic offers make it the ideal country where to organize events to promote the sector.
In conclusion, what Nautica Italiana expects to generate is to gather representation from all nautical-related sectors and get them to work on common projects with shared goals and strategy, including the political parts which are entitled to change or update the industry and market regulations.