The Palma International Boat Show closes its doors with the satisfaction of having become, after forty years, a benchmark event on the international yacht show calendar

The 40th Palma International Boat Show closed its doors yesterday after an intense day of commercial and social activity. The fair, organised by the Regional Ministry of Enterprise, Employment and Energy, through the Balearic Islands Institute for Business Innovation (IDI), and BYBA, this year had 295 exhibitors and 600 boats, 260 of them at sea. According to the organisation’s initial assessments, the presence of major shipyards has already been confirmed for the next edition, and they have expressed their intention to repeat and, if possible, with more space. Moreover, the general opinion is that the offer presented by the participating companies has been of high quality and very mature and reflects the evolution that the Palma boat show has undergone in recent years, which has become the event that marks the start of the season and where many deals are closed.

Around 27.000 people visited this year’s fair, a lower figure than last year’s, mainly due to the bad weather yesterday, Sunday, when it rained for most of the morning. In any case, it should be noted that during the first three days around 22,000 people visited the fair, a higher figure than last year’s edition.

This 40th anniversary edition has generated a lot of media attention. It should be noted that 330 professionals have been accredited to cover the activities of the PIBS, many of them specialising in sailing and coming from European countries and even the United States.

The Palma International Boat Show 2024 has been the starting point for designing the future of this event, as the path towards certification as a sustainable event and measuring its economic impact has begun. During the fair, visitors and exhibitors were surveyed to obtain the data and subsequently find out what the PIBS means for the Balearic economy. Following the surveys, the carbon footprint will be measured to draw up a plan to reduce it.

The 40th anniversary was also an opportunity to recognise and thank the exhibitors for the support they have always given to this nautical event in Palma. Thus, the Marcial Sánchez Barcáiztegui award was presented to Náutica Morey, one of the companies that participated in the Alcúdia Floating Boat Show in 1983, the forerunner of the PIBS. In fact, the role of the Alcúdia Town Hall and Alcudiamar were also recognised for hosting this first local fair, which laid the foundations for today’s Palma International Boat Show.