Show to Open With Boats in Doldrums : Exhibits: About 300 makers of boats and aquatic gear will display their wares at Convention Center, despite recession.
The fourth annual San Diego International Boat Show opens Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center at a time when the recreational boating industry finds itself in the depths of the recession.
About 300 manufacturers of boats of all kinds and sizes and of aquatic gear from water skis and compasses to sails and fishing poles will display their wares inside the arena and outside with in-water exhibits at the adjacent San Diego Marriott Marina for four days ending Sunday.
But the festive atmosphere won’t completely obscure the fact that the industry is in the midst of a dark period. Dollars spent on aquatic products dipped to $10.5 billion nationwide last year from the 1988 peak of $17 billion. Unit sales of boats dropped to 439,000 in 1991 from the record 750,000 in 1988.
The industry has been hammered not only by the economic downturn but by the federal luxury tax passed two years ago that placed an added 10% tax on all boats costing more than $100,000.
“That’s had a real dampening affect on sales. It’s a big tax,” said show manager Jeff Hancock, an executive with National Marine Manufacturers Assn., the Chicago-based trade group that represents 1,700 nautical recreation companies.
The industry mounted a concentrated legislative effort to have the tax repealed and indeed thought that the tax was history this past legislative session. Both houses of the Congress passed a bill that would have repealed the luxury tax. But the bill was vetoed last week by President Bush, Hancock said. The industry plans to mount another attack on the tax in 1993.
The recreational boating industry is expecting only modest growth in sales in 1992 and 1993, Hancock said.
“Simply put, like every other industry in the country, we are downsizing,” Hancock said. “We’re matching production with reduced demand. Everyone is getting leaner and meaner, doing more with less.”
