Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/326874
July 2014 | Boating Industry | 25 [ A look back… and a look forward ] www.BoatingIndustry.com Biggest challenges to growth Finally, we asked what those in the indus- try saw as the biggest challenge to the future growth of our industry. The responses for the most part represented the usual suspects: lack of affordable entry-level boats, the shrinking middle class and increasing government regulations. LARRY RUSSO "We are not playing to what's coming down the road. It's a less affl uent population. We have to reengineer boating to fi t into their budget … I don't know yet whether we have the skillset to fi gure out how to produce a boat at 50 per- cent of the cost. It's the only way we're going to recover in this industry." THOM DAMMRICH "How rapidly our industry embraces the fastest-growing demographics in our country, which today are a very small part of boating. If we don't change and embrace outreach to Hispanics and African-Americans and Asians, that is a very signifi cant long-term threat to our industry." TOM G. WHOWELL "It comes back to time on the water. One of the concerns that we're seeing is a lack of time to go boating as much they might like and enjoy it." DAVID MCINTYRE "Water supply is a big problem for us. I know it's a big challenge all across the West. We just don't have enough water to supply the growing population in these areas. I see that problem spreading." DOUGLYSS GIULIANA "What we have to realize as an industry is that our competition is not other dealers. Our competition is soccer and vacation homes and any other activity that pulls attention away from sailing. Efforts like Grow Boating are key to bring attention to this activity." ED LOFGREN "Right now the biggest problem we have on our plate is ethanol. I would say 90 percent of the repairs and maintenance work that we're doing is ethanol-related and the government doesn't seem to care about our industry in that respect. Higher ethanol levels in our gasoline will devastate our industry." TRAVIS HAYES "The aging of the boomers, a relatively small generation X (my generation) and the millennials saddled with record student load debt. These are very real and unfortunately strong head winds to our business and indus- try. I think we need to embrace those who can afford boating, then look at time-shares, partial ownership, boating clubs and rentals for the balance of us wanting to boat." P22x25-BI14JUL-LookForward.indd 25 5/28/14 12:01 PM