NMMA President Thom Dammrich, who drew 160 members of the recreational boating industry to Chicago in mid-December for a “Recreational Boating Stakeholder Growth Summit,” addressed BWI members and industry guests during its annual meeting at the Miami International Boat Show. His remarks focused on what he hopes the media’s role will be in an emerging, decade-long effort to revitalize and grow the boating industry. A condensation of his remarks follow …
I have been asked to focus on what I hope will be the media’s role in an emerging, decade-long effort to revitalize and grow the boating industry. I’d like to share ideas, some goals and some challenges we face and ask you to tell me how you can help.
I am sure you have seen the numbers:
- New boat sales down 55% from 2006 to about 145,000 units in 2011
- Total boats in use declining for the past five years after a 15 year up cycle
- Age of boats in the fleet increasing from 16 years in 1997 to 21 years in 2010
- Age of boaters increasing with rising numbers in their 50’s and 60’s and declining in their 30’s
- The current boating population is comprised of the fast-shrinking demographic – 90% of boaters are white. Of 157 million people added to the US population by 2050, 97.2 million will be Hispanic.
Can we grow boating in the next decade? Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right! I believe we can.
We hosted a Growth Summit in December; 160 people showed up. They developed four shared visions of success:
- Unified Industry Cross Sector Collaboration Brings Results – Boating Now Preferred Recreation Choice
- Boating Participation Soars! New Generation and Greater Diversity Attracted
- Expanded Access to the Water and the Lifestyle Has Been Achieved
- Smarter and Fewer Regulations, and Better Education Results in Safe, Affordable and Enjoyable Boating
They identified 39 challenges to achieve these visions and over 80 potential actions that could be taken to deliver a robust boating industry in 2021. Among them:
- How do we encourage boaters to invite friends on the water?
- How do we focus recreational boating recruitment more on kids and minorities?
- How do we improve efforts to provide better boater education?
Boating writers I think not only have an opportunity but a responsibility to help lead change with the power of words and images. How you do that is not for me to tell you, but for you to discover and tell me (us).
I can tell you what I think the needs are. You decide if you can help lead us forward.
Discover Boating has been successful and can be even more successful. Welcome to the Water (WTTW) is not just an advertising campaign – it is a movement. You can be part of that movement and help recruit everyone in the industry and existing boaters to be part of it!
We must reach out to minorities – to non-whites – if we want to grow boating. Can you feature Hispanics, blacks and other minorities in your writing? It would be a good step forward.
A big part of the WTTW strategy is to leverage the experiences of current boaters to draw in new boaters and welcome back lapsed boaters. How can you help us leverage the experiences of current boaters in your writing?
We need to find better ways to reach children and get them on the water. What can you do to promote youth boating opportunities to parents and children alike? What life skills can a child learn from boating?
There is a strong correlation between safe boating and enjoyable boating. What can you do to convince every boater they need boater education? What can you do to improve opportunities for education; to improve boating safety?
You have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote this great American industry to the public and public officials. Your possibilities are endless and the industry is counting on you to lead a path to change and growth. You have the tools and the power to make a difference. How can we help you?
Many details of the Grow Boating effort can be found at www.growboating.org/pressroom/. Contact Dammrich at tdammrich@nmma.org.