His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan
Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority
"The inaugural Abu Dhabi Yacht Show (ADYS) demonstrated to the global yachting community the phenomenal potential of Abu Dhabi as a world class luxury yachting destination.
As an Associate Sponsor of the ADYS, Aldar Marinas was able to present its many iconic marina development projects to a captive audience of leading players from the yachting industry. Aldar successfully exhibited its ambition to provide high quality marine facilities to the luxury yacht market.
Aldar's state-of-the-art marinas are designed to offer the infrastructure and ancillary supplies and services to meet the expectations of the discerning yacht owner and his guests."
Steve Burton,
Head of Marinas, ALDAR Properties
"This first edition of the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show was a great success and I was delighted to take part in this amazing event with HORUS. I’m looking forward to the next edition."
André Grossman
Founder of HORUS
"We were delighted for the opportunity to sponsor the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show. The setting of the show was fantastic and we were most impressed with the level of service we received from the organisers. With the Middle East being a focus growth area for our business, the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show was the perfect platform for networking and promoting our company and services to a very relevant and selected audience. We look forward to sponsoring next year's event."
Alex Berry
Executive Vice President, VistaJet
"Being able to reach out to that much broader an audience is exactly what we were after. The Abu Dhabi Yacht Show was a great opportunity to network."
Darryl Wakefield
President, Westport
"The reason we chose to come to the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show is because we now believe and I think it has been proven, that both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become yachting destinations."
William Smith
Vice President, Trinity Yachts
"I think the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show can be rated among the best in the world. I can see that in the future, the important shows will be the Monaco Yacht Show in Europe and the Abu Dhabi Show in the Middle East."
Johan Valentijn
Abu Dhabi Mar
"You have managed to bring all the relevant persons in the yachting business to Abu Dhabi.
Today I met many people who did not come to Dubai but came to the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show and who always come to the Monaco Yacht Show, which is for me the reference. It’s a very good job you’ve done."
Isabelle Huet
Sales Manager, Blohm Voss Shipyards
"The show was a great success for us as we managed to promote both of our yachts next to each other for the first time."
Dion Liveras
Owner and Chairman, Liveras Yachts
"Abu Dhabi is a city where you can actually see the marine industry growing. The entire marina infrastructure is being developed over here. It’s not just talk it’s actually happening. We have found the show very interesting. In Europe and US business is down, here at least business is happening."
Dr. Rainer Behne
Managing Partner, Rodriguez Group
"We’re proud to be at this new exhibition.
The Abu Dhabi Yacht Show has the potential not only to double, but to triple in size next year. This is the beginning of something which I believe will be fantastic."
Alessio Tumbiolo
Chairman, ART Marine
Official Distributor of Azimut & Benetti
"Edmiston & Company was delighted to support the first ever Abu Dhabi Yacht Show. We were extremely impressed with the organisation of the show; the facilities were good and the event planning was excellent. Of particular note was the good number of large yachts in attendance. This yacht show is a key part of the growing interest in yachting in the Middle East.
By focusing on the biggest and best yachts I think the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show will quickly establish itself as the yacht show in the region. Edmiston will certainly be supporting the ADYS again in 2010."
Jamie Edmiston
Edmiston & Company Limited
"Thank you for the support and efforts in making the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show an outstanding event for our company. Your extensive cooperation in organising this show has helped us to continue our success story."
Mohamed H. Al Shaali
Chairman, Gulf Craft Inc.
"Congratulations on your successful Yacht Show. The experience was beyond what was expected."
Christina Norris
Owner, Oversee Yachts
"It’s a new show in a key market that we felt we could not afford to miss. It is very important for us to promote our brand to the market place especially in this new and exciting market which holds so much potential.
The Abu Dhabi Yacht Show is highly targeted to the large yacht market and we have received exceptionally good quality enquiries, which is very encouraging. It appears the market here is very different as it is so focused on the big boat sector.
Our aim from ADYS is obviously to sell a boat, but we also strongly believe that promoting our brand in this new market is extremely important. We are building our contacts for the future and hope to be part of the growth here in Abu Dhabi and the whole Middle East Region."
Ron Cleveringa
Burger Boat Company
"We are only involved with large yachts (over 24m) and this show is specifically aimed at this sector. This show is a good way for us to meet with other industry partners, shipbuilders, designers and project managers as well as the owners. The Abu Dhabi Yacht Show helped us network with other exhibitors, and to look for new business through the show visitors."
Anne Blythe, Senior Registrar
Isle of Man Registry
"We feel that there is great potential in this region for our standard of craftsmanship.
This show is smaller than some, but much more targeted to the Superyacht market, which suits us better than larger shows where the visitors are not so specifically targeted to our market. So far the ADYS has provided us with some very good quality leads and some very interesting clients."
Ivor Evans (Managing Director) and Eric de Meij (Commercial Manager)
Struike & Hamerslag
"We felt the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show gave us the opportunity to meet with yacht owners and other industry representatives to raise the awareness of Marina Ibiza."
Daniel Mari Rennesson
Marina Ibiza
"We have a number of important clients in the Arabian Gulf, so we wanted to come and support Abu Dhabi, explore the market and see where we can expand our market share in this region.
Middle East market is growing and is sustainable unlike Europe, America and Russia.
We’ve always been very strong in the Middle East and have worked very hard to be successful in this region, and to participate in the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show has been on top of our agenda.”
Jonathan Beckett
Chief Executive, Burgess
"This show is really going to go places – it is fantastic for a first time event. Many shows in Europe cannot achieve this standard on the first time, I think it has huge potential."
Ahmed Seddiq Al Mutawaa,
President, Atlas Group, UAE
"Fantastic show, and thank you for the opportunity that allowed us to be part of it.
No doubt we were very proud participants, representing the two largest yachts at the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show. This has brought us great recognition and tremendous exposure.
The show was good for us, the response was positive and very rewarding . It gave us the opportunity to meet many high profile VIPs and several members of the Royal family including HH Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
This was quite an honor for us, nothing else could have topped this!
Our participation in the show resulted in three excellent representation agreements with two leading manufacturers: one from the US, the other from Denmark and a third with Liveras yachts as their agent /representative in the Gulf and Middle East countries.
Also a definite sale of a 113' luxury yacht and two water limousines and several other potential leads that we're following up, has made the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show very successful for us.
We are already looking forward to another exciting, bigger and better Superyacht show in 2010. We are thrilled to know that Abu Dhabi has the potential to be the next Superyacht destination in the world. Abu Dhabi has what it takes!"
Sam Al Abbasi
Managing Director, 4Yacht Arabia