What are the newest trends in the charter market? What are the most frequent requests from yacht owners? During the latest iteration of the Monaco Yacht Show, we asked these questions to Bob Denison, CEO of Denison Yachting, specialised in yachting, brokering and charter. Denison Yachting, founded in 1948, currently has 22 offices in the United States and has recently opened a new European office in Montecarlo.

“Today’s charter market is hotter than ever, especially in Europe – explains Bob Denison to Daily Nautica – there was a long time when people couldn’t come to Europe because of Covid, and now we have a pent up demand of Americans wanting to explore Europe.”

Do more and more yacht owners want to explore remote areas?

“The most popular segments of the charter market continue to be the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, but we are seeing a spike of activity for places like Antarctica, where people want to explore parts of the world that are exciting and new and adventurous. We anticipate that section of yacht charter to continue being very good.”

Are yacht owners looking for more wellbeing?

“Today we are seeing a lot of yacht owners wanting to create spaces on board for healthy living, so, for example, a gym, a sauna, a massage room, and also parts of the galley dedicated to things like juicing, where you have cold pressed fruits and vegetables. There is a real emphasis on healthy lifestyle and also being very active on the water. So they want more spaces for toys and for doing fun things in the water and on the water.”

Sustainability: Trendy or a real topic?

“We have just come back from a shipyard tour in the Netherlands where we visited 15 shipyards, and one of the hot topics was sustainability. And it’s interesting because we often hear the question, is that a true interest by superyacht owners to have sustainability. From what we hear and talking to the shipyards, it is a true, sincere desire to be more green. We are also seeing a spike in using existing yachts and refitting them. We talked with Icon Yachts, which, as you know is a shipyard in Holland that does superyacht conversions from commercial vessels, and there is increased interest in owners wanting to use something that is already in place.”

Are Europe and Italy interesting markets?

We are looking to expand our efforts in Europe, because we think there is a ton of potential here in Europe.  We hope that in the next 12 months you will hear news of us opening an office in Italy, we don’t know where yet but are exploring different options.