Yacht Charters Sail From Niche Vacation To Mainstream Appeal

If booking patterns are any indication, yacht charters are making a bigger splash in the market.

“It seems that the yacht charter vacation is gradually shifting from a niche vacation product into a more mainstream audience,” Ian Pedersen, The Moorings’ senior marketing manager, tells Canadian Travel Press. “Our average charter guest age is getting younger, and we are seeing increased interest from families, and people outside of our core sailing audience.”

Based on bookings for the first quarter of the year, The Moorings — a premier yacht charter vacation provider has that specializes in private yacht charters in over 20 destinations around the world — is now exceeding 2019 levels.

“The global shutdown and subsequent travel restrictions made it incredibly difficult for people to enjoy our charter vacations, despite the fact that a sailing vacation is perhaps the ideal socially-distanced getaway. Although we offered the exact product people were looking for during the pandemic, the challenge we faced was simple access to the destinations in which we operate, with many Covid-era restrictions prohibiting guests from entering countries like the Virgin Islands, Italy, Greece, etc.,” he shares. “So any time those restrictions relaxed, we saw a massive influx of bookings to those destinations. Beginning in the second half of 2022 we saw most of these restrictions lifted worldwide, and continuing to Q1 of 2023 we are indeed surpassing 2019 levels at long last.”

For the full story, check out the latest issue of CANADIAN TRAVEL PRESS.