By Alisdair Pettigrew, Director & Co-Founder of BLUE
This year’s Monaco Yacht Show was a week of big numbers: 43 yachts launched, the 111m Leviathan on the quayside and what may turn out to be a record 30,000 visitors. BLUE Director and Co-Founder Alisdair Pettigrew recaps the 2026 show and explores why good content now matters as much as face time in a sector that runs on reputation and trust.
The world is experiencing a widespread wave of fiscal austerity driven by soaring debt and borrowing costs, with global public debt reaching record highs near $102 trillion.
Yet, that world may as well have been Venus and Mars if you were attending the Monaco Yacht Show S.A.M. (MYS) this week!
I, for one, experienced a week of stark contrasts, with my lack of acumen and time put into booking a room near Monaco meaning that – after a day and evening of mixing with the great and the good in palatial splendour – I had to retreat to what can only be described as a cell, complete with the option of paying €9 for sheets and towels, as the images below attest…
Like a size 12 shoe-ed, middle-aged man version of Cinderella, I reluctantly retreated each night to my servant quarters. A harsh lesson in being more thorough in checking the booking.com small print and not falling for the one and only image of a sun-kissed Côte d’Azur balcony!
It was a year of large numbers. The old adage ‘bigger is better’ has never been truer than now in the superyacht market. Raphael Sauleau from broker IYC was quoted as saying, “the top market is very resilient: people want bigger yachts”. Chris Cecil-Wright, founder of broker Cecil-Wright, cited a shortage of nearly new used yachts pushing buyers towards newbuilds; embellishing the thirst for big.
That was borne out, with the launch of the 111m Leviathan (111m) only being pipped by the launch of the 123m Golden Odyssey in 2024 as the largest yacht ever shown at Monaco; with 43 chunky yachts launched at the show this year.
For what may turn out to be a record 30,000 attendees once the count is in, technology continued to play a key role in generating excitement, with hybrid and electric propulsion, explorer yachts, and bigger living spaces on board all gaining attention.
For our clients and the wider industry, MYS is an important show, and with Genoa and Metstrade coming, it’s a busy time of year.
And while events play a critical role in communicating in the marine leisure and superyacht industry, where reputation, expertise and trusted recommendations are so important, it’s also the expertise we share and the quality of the content we create that can increasingly influence key stakeholders.
It’s a timely reminder that while it’s hard to beat ‘facetime’, good communications need to be digitally integrated as part of a coherent, multi-channel brand voice. It’s a factor increasingly being recognised in the sector. Bring it on!