COMMENT
Is Barcelona safe for a charter yacht show?
O
neOcean Port Vell and MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association have announced the renewal of their collaboration regarding the hosting of the MYBA Charter Show at the Barcelona marina. This announcement will see the four-day trade show, held at OneOcean Port Vell each year until at least until 2021.
For 28 years the MYBA Charter Yacht show was held in the Italian cities of San Remo and Genoa. Then following a series of events where brokers were left with the feeling that the city was unsafe, the show was moved to Barcelona. The first and second outings of that show in the Spanish city did little to quell the feeling of unease with several reports of violence against brokers and a significant number of street thefts of handbags wallets and watches being reported.
Yet despite this MYBA have announced that OneOcean Port Vell the Barcelona city centre marina is now set to play host to this high-profile international event for the next two consecutive years. And I along with a fair few brokers I know have to ask why?
The marina is certainly well equipped and is far more suitable as a charter show venue than was, the somewhat chaotic and hazard-ridden dock in Genoa. But is Barcelona really safe? Should we be encouraging crews and yacht brokers to visit the crime ridden city no matter how pretty it is, or how well run the marina is?
I could (but won’t) name brokers who have had Rolex watches ripped off their wrists, I can point you towards others who have been bitten, yes bitten because they refused to hand over valuables and I know of several young lady brokers who were so frightened of walking in the area of organised accommodation that they checked out and booked into very pricy 5 star hotels. Locally there have been reports of a rise in sex crimes comprising rape, abuse, harassment, exhibitionism and sexual exploitation. In 2018, there was an 18.4% increase in these acts (764 cases)
in Barcelona. Rape incidents increased by 15.3% (136 cases).
Michael Howorth looks at the success of the MYBA Charter Show in Barcelona, but warns that those in attendance should be wary of their personal security in the city
Pickpockets are everywhere and are very well organised. They are incredibly good at their job too and can fleece you long before you notice. Trust me, I know from personal experience and I consider myself a very savvy traveller. The Internet is awash with reports and warnings in this regard and if you believed them all you would never actually get off the plane when it landed at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona (also known as El Prat) for fear of being robbed within seconds.
Newspaper reports in Spain talk of Barcelona’s skyrocketing crime rates underscoring theft as one of the city’s main problems. Violent robberies have increased by 19.4% with an average of 33 occurring each day. Despite the negative statistics, these nevertheless reflect a slight containment of the problem, as at the beginning of the year violent robberies had increased by 24.5% and break-ins by 30.3%.
Yet to put things into context, Barcelona and Madrid lead the table in terms of security infrastructure in buildings, bridges, roads and emergency services.
There can be no doubting of the success of the past two shows, organised by MYBA, at OneOcean Port Vell. A press release issued after the show in May this year, informed journalists that there were 60 yachts at the 2019 show versus 53 that attended the show in 2018. The total L.O.A. this year was 2,653m versus 2,521m last year and the total number of attendees this year was 2,074 versus 1,885 in 2018. The fourth area to have displayed growth was in the total number of staff manning the exhibition stands.
This year there were 502 versus 494 last year.
While in Barcelona the Charter Yacht Show, has, set a new industry benchmark and broken some records, I just hope that it keeps breaking records and not the wrists of those who attend it.
ONBOARD | AUTUMN 2019 | 9
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