MedCorner is part of the United States Sailboat Show, organized by the Annapolis Boat Show, which is the biggest and oldest sailboat show in the US. Today, close to 130,000 loyal attendees around the world travel to the Chesapeake Bay each year to experience these nautical extravaganzas and charter companies from all around the world exhibit there as a part in Vacation Basin area. With the MedCorner, fleet operators from the Mediterranean can present their fleets to US clients and make direct bookings. The MedCorner tent is a unique opportunity for visitors to educate themselves about sailing the Mediterranean areas, as fleet operators hold presentations each day at the boat show. Today, the Mediterranean Corner is the largest exhibiting fleet operator tent at the USSS.
Even though our efforts are long-term oriented, the first 2016 Mediterranean Corner has produced unexpected direct sales. Despite Hurricane Mathew, more than 1,500 visitors visited the MedCorner tent in 5 days, and 20 presentations of the Mediterranean sailing areas were held. We closed with over 1,000 email contacts and an overall very positive public impression. In the first year, we achieved high awareness about the Mediterranean yacht charter operators. In the following years, the Mediterranean Corner has been visited by many more visitors. The third Mediterranean Corner has collected more than 1,200 direct contacts, made many more direct bookings and held more than 25 presetations! Each year the growth is more visible and sailing the Mediterranean has become much closed to the US public.
This is a well-timed opportunity to start a cooperation with US investors as the USD/EUR ratio is highly favorable and many are thinking about yacht investment. According to statistics, half of the Annapolis Boat Show visitors earn between $100.000 and $200.000 annually, while another 20% is between $250,000 and $1,000,000; a demographic which most boat shows can only dream about.
Fleet operators from Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain and all other Mediterranean destinations are welcome to apply and participate at the major charter show in the USA as a part of MedCorner. The MedCorner will be divided into various sailing area regions! The ICE team will organize the exhibiting area (furniture setup, print of graphics and set up, wifi connections, morning transfers…), leaving the exhibitors only to book flights, airport transfers and accommodation. MedCorner will feature the biggest raffle ever seen in Annapolis; more than 10 charter weeks will be set as prizes for visitors who leave their email contacts.
I’m speechless. That means we had plenty of customers visiting us today and we are pretty sure that we will have some new clients aboard next season. If you ask me for a recommendation – YES! Definitely join the MedCorner!
We exhibited at the MedCorner two times. In the first year, there was surprisingly a lot of people visiting our tent out of curiosity, but the second year proved that visitors came to visit the MedCorner because of certain interest of chartering in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea. In the second year, we had a significant increase in the number of inquiries, so it is worth investing in the participation.
It’s our first time here, and it’s been great speaking directly to US clients. We have made quite a few bookings and got a much better understanding of the US market
The experience was really interesting and the organization was really good. The space we had and the organization made it possible for each company inside the Med Corner to have the same space.
We really enjoyed the participation at the MedCorner. We had an opportunity to meet new clients and our colleagues from other countries and overseas. It was really great.
We are at the Annapolis Boat Show for the third time. It’s really interesting to meet new people, introduce our country, and our company to the US clients and we are sure we will have more and more bookings next year from the US.
We have met a lot of US clients and looking forward to new bookings
We came to the US to directly meet clients, and we are very happy with the job done here!”
We had very interesting meetings with potential US customers. We will definitely come back next year.
America is a market full of unexplored business opportunities.