Paschalis Patsiokas, Chief Executive Officer of BWA Yachting, discusses future strategies for the industry in a post-pandemic world…
In a candid conversation with Martin Redmayne, Paschalis discussed the economic impact of yachting, “Globally, people don’t understand the economic value of yachting. There is no St Tropez without yachts.” However, he also argued, “With more coverage of the industry, we are bringing more tourism and business to superyacht locations.”
Paschalis doesn’t like to let things out of his control frustrate him, but that doesn’t stop him from having particular gripes with the industry, “I think that one of the things that we can do is lobby together for change. If you look at the growth curve for the number of billionaires in existence over the last couple decades, its enormous. So, we need to get better at working together to bridge the gap.” and went on to explain how, “By being more open and having more freedom to exchange more general data and information, we can move forward.”
The CEO believes he has found a silver lining in retrospect to the last 18 months, the pandemic demanded that stakeholders in the industry banded together in order to ensure survival. Paschalis believes that not only has this sense of community ensured survival, but it has also likened the chances of a prosperous future, “I’ve learnt that we are resilient, and we are global. The bonds that have been created with people when times were tough will not simply just go away. As a company we felt very much on the front line, and thankfully, nobody that I know of was hospitalised or worse.”
The 42-minute-long in-depth discussion also went on to draw specific insight into the realities of agency operations in the second half of the conversation, with a particular focus on what needs to be done to ensure future success.
