Global Marine Travel (GMT) continues to climb the [Travel Weekly Power List](https://www.travelweekly.com/Power-List-2020/Global-Marine-Travel)as a high-valued Travel Management Company within the Maritime Industry, earning its new stripes at #43 in 2020 over #47 in 2019.
The Lantau Yacht Club (LYC) welcomed the first yacht member and first visiting yacht on 30 August 2020, marking a key milestone of Hong Kong’s newest state-of-the-art marina. The soft opening involves the opening of the Marina Office, and Phase 1 of the Marina and the service yard. The 45-feet Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 479 sailed into the all-new Lantau Yacht Club marina closely followed by Ferretti Yachts 670 and they were welcomed by the marina staff.
The Sanya Central Business District Administration is focusing on new ways to promote boating in China. A new ‘international yacht exchange centre’ has been set up to educate a new audience on the joys boating especially around the tropical resort island of Hainan.
The Singapore Boating Industry Association (SBIA) in collaboration with the Hong Kong Boating Industry Association (HKBIA), is organizing the Asia Boating Dialogue 2020. This Dialogue series was inaugurated in Singapore in 2015 as ICOMIA – The Asian Dialogue. It was an invitation-only event designed to engage the Asian boating community and help it become more institutionalized and organise collective thinking. It was subsequently promoted as the Asia Boating Forum.
Cruising from the past into the future, and combining pure elegance, classic contours, and the very latest in technical capabilities, the OCEA shipyard presents the Commuter 50. Over the past twenty years, the Commuter range has become emblematic of OCEA’s shipbuilding expertise. The design is inspired by the “commuter yachts” of the early 20th Century, sleek boats owned by New York’s billionaire class and designed to ferry them across the East River to Manhattan with speed, elegance, and maximum style and class.
Swiss Ocean and Vikand have teamed up to create a concrete and effective Covid-19 programme for charter and private yachts. As the world struggles with the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the yachting industry continues to function – albeit with new challenges such as travel restrictions, freight issues and contractual difficulties for charter yachts. First-hand reports from the popular hotspots for yachts, however, clearly show a lack of control onboard many yachts in the active prevention of the spread of the virus.
Starting on a positive note we would like to welcome Kingship as APSA’s newest member. Roger and Diana Liang are well known in the Asian superyacht community as well as the rest of the world, and their son Jeffrey is joining them in the family shipyard business. It’s great to have them as members of APSA.
The Italian Super Yacht Life Foundation (ISYL) provides vocational training in association with NAVIGO and the shipyards in the Viareggio district. In October 2020 three new courses will be on offer to 75 high school graduates. Courses include technical skills and opportunities, whilst providing a pathway to employment in the yachting industry, and in other strategic sectors such as logistics and tourism.
What will be the new regulation landscape for this summer season in the French and Italian Riviera as far as VAT on charters and new measures imposed by the COVID health crisis are concerned?
