CORRECTION: 70% of boaters are over 46 – not 65 – years old
If powerboats continue to grow in technology and innovation, the same cannot be said for those on boats. There are fewer and fewer young people, and numbers in hand, the under-35s who have boats are just over 5 percent-7.65 percent-while 70 percent are over 65. These are alarming numbers in a nation with nearly 7,500 miles of coastline.
The picture that emerges from the Italian Yachtsman Portrait study, a survey of 160 maritime locations conducted by Assonautica, denotes a generation gap that is very large and in plain sight.
“Seventy percent of boaters are over 65 years old. A technical evolution of boats has not been matched by a growth in demand from the younger generation, who meanwhile use dad’s boat.”
These were the words of National President Alfredo Malcarne, who then continued, “We need to bring young people closer to boating and make them rediscover the passion of seafaring, and to do this we are working on nautical accessibility, which must go through economic, cultural and physical access to the sea .”
Boating in Italy towards extinction?
At this rate, if suitable countermeasures are not implemented, boating in Italy is in danger of disappearing. If young people do not become passionate about the sea again, the road now seems to be marked. However, there is no shortage of opportunities for new generations to revitalize and rediscover the sea.
The results of the study were presented by Matteo Dusconi at the 4th System Conference. The issues that emerged are many and important, as are also the topics discussed, which will be the basis for the activity in the coming months. All the material was compiled into a document called the Pescara Charter. The key points will be:
- Nautical accessibility
- Sea slides for every riparian municipality
- Tourism taxation applied to marina resorts
- Technical coordination of the regions tourism commission on the work of uniformity in marina services.
