DIBS '19: Burgess on Setting Sale in the UAE

Speaking of the show’s successes, he began, “I think that The Dubai Yacht Show has actually grown quite significantly. We’ve been supporting it for about 10 years now (maybe even a little bit more more) and to see how it has developed has been incredibly impressive.” And indeed, for a show outside of Europe and the USA to welcome returning exhibitors from the centre of the superyacht industry, it must be doing something right.

Richard confirmed, “It’s a new location here and has been for the last 2 years and I think also seeing the shipyards and exhibitors grow and to see who’s attending is a real testament to the value that I think a lot of the industry is placing on The Dubai Yacht Show and it becoming an important and integral part of the yachting calendar.”

So important the show may be, but how exactly is the region - not one that’s exactly famed as a premier yachting destination - keeping up? “I think the luxury of Dubai and how they’ve marketed themselves over the last few years is a real draw for young, wealthy people [...] from a luxury standpoint it’s got absolutely everything that you could possibly want,” Richard explained.

“The region from a yachting point of view is it developing and we can see it slowly grow. We haven’t got necessarily the high profile run of itineraries at the moment but there is some stunning coastline as well if you’re heading down to Oman it has stunning scenery and it’s very different from the sky that you should be seeing seeing behind me.”

Though it’s not just the show and its location that attracts the yachting elite. Of course, some of the world’s largest superyachts belong to UAE based owners. Richard noted, “The UAE has always been an important market for Burgess. We’ve got a number of clients from the region and we do recognise the value that the UAE contributes to us as a business as well as the yachting industry as a whole.”

He continued, “We’ve followed through on that commitment; we’ve got the office here now which we’ve have now had for a couple of years to really sort of demonstrate the fact that we do and this market is important for us. For us to have that local presence within our important markets is something we’re really working towards on a more global scale as well.”

With plenty of positivity towards the show, region and their presence in this growing market, Richard demonstrated that Burgess have well truly positioned themselves to tackle anything that comes their way.