问答题 Genoa is on the Italian Riviera, but its steelworks, container parks and oil terminal are not the usual charms of a millionaires' playground. Even so. for many wealthy people it was the place to be last weekend, to see the Salone Nautico's fabulous display of luxury boats and yachts.
(47) With some 350,000 visitors, the event is a shop-window for Italy's boatbuilders who lead the market in providing the super-rich with boats stretching beyond 24m (79ft). Italy's boatyards make more than a third of all the floating palaces around the world. At this year's show, Azimut-Benetti and Ferretti-Riva, the two leading producers, displayed their latest and most opulent models.
Italy builds all kinds of pleasure craft and two-thirds, worth eurol.7 billion ($2.1 billion) last year, are exported. (48) According to Paolo Vitelli, chairman of the Italian boatbuilders' association, the winning combination at the very top of the market is style fabrics, skilled carpenters, fashion, technology and innovation. "We are masters in these areas. The business is tailor-made for Italians." He is unconcerned by high oil prices and parts of the world sailing into economic doldrums. The market for luxury goods seems impervious to these.
Three factors, says Mr Vitelli. have helped the market grow. (49) Boatbuilders have raised output by switching to modern production techniques: more marinas have been built, which makes life easier for owners; and the number of millionaires with money to splurge on pleasure craft has risen sharply. Their pockets have to be deep. Azimut-Benetti. which Mr Vitelli founded in 1969. offers a range of craft. At the top of its fibreglass-hulled Azimut range is a 35m (116 ft) motor yacht which costs euro8. 5m. A steel-hulled Benetti, however, might cost five times that. Mr Vitelli's business reported net profits of earo35m on sales of euro403m last year and it is expanding strongly. (50) Meanwhile, new markets, like China and Russia. are opening up and producing their own crop of boating millionaires.