Imagine all the people who will visit the Liverpool Boat Show...certainly the organisers feel it's easy if you try. In a curtain-raiser held in a dank warehouse - now the home of London's Museum in Docklands - the suits lined up to reveal this stunning new land of boat-floggery.
There will be 400,000 coming along, they say. 'This is not an aggressive move towards London,' Liverpool Boat Show's commercial director James Gower told us, 'This is not a hostile move...we did not take a stand in ExCel for that very reason.' Cute.
Just along the slush-covered walkways of Docklands, ExCel was preparing to open its doors for the fifth day of the London Boat Show, as exhibitors there imagined there was no heaven, not on earth anyway, as punters stayed away. ExCel will be hard pushed to get a quarter of Liverpool's promised multitude this year.
Many are talking of ditching ExCel altogether and only setting up stall in Southampton. Others of ditching Southampton and having just one major UK boat show in ExCel...in September when the weather might encourage ice-cream sellers instead of chestnut roasters.
Yet a powerful group of businessmen, civic leaders and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston proffered us bacon sarnies - in fashionable ciabatta bread, of course and not Muvver's Pride as the East End of Dickens, the Blitz and Ronnie Kray disappears forever - to tell us about the Sceptred Isle's greatest Boat Show secret...the North.
Forget the Solent, the Thames Estuary and the West Country, it's the Mersey, stupid. That's the place to sell your boats, fellas. We were told that in 2001 Liverpool was number 17 in the 'UK's retail spend' charts. By 2008 it was number 4. There are five new hotels on the Liverpool waterfront. We were told that the vibrancy of the nightlife was such that an alien from Outer Space would think the human race had been told: 'In four hour's time you're all gonna die.'
From what I remember of covering newspaper stories in Liverpool, the alien's perception might have had more to do with reality than fantasy. But, if the good folks of the Liverpool Boat Show are to be believed, things have changed and if John Lennon could land at the airport named after he would not recognise the hell on earth that was once his home. Imagine.
Have your say!
Latest comments
January 14 21:43
Julie Turner
The UK boat industry does not want any more boat shows. Just one premier show a year - in September. Excel or Southampton - it doesn't matter. What does matter is profiteers trying to establish an exhibition that isn't wanted.
January 18 12:08
Alex Bewsey
I came back from Excel the other day and decided that this was the last time I would make the effort to attend the London Boat Show.It's not worth the time and expense. Call me old fashioned if you like, I might be completely off beam on this but I lament the demise of Earls Court. We faithfully attended the shows there for years, I was even an exhibitor myself for a while. It was always fun, even in gloomy times there was a bit of life, razzmataz, dancing girls, marines dangling from the ceiling, cheerful commentators themed pools and plenty to see. A visit to Earls Court was a bright spot in an otherwise dull time of the year. If a babysitter was available then we would stay overnight and visit London.
The show this year was probably the most lack lustre ever. I shall only attend one boatshow a year now--Southampton.
P.S. I think Liverpool is a great idea, probably nearly as quick to get to from the West Country as Excel
January 25 11:33
Adrian
Dick ,
very good.... to be succesful all they need is love.....
I am sure though that we now only need Southampton in the South. A Boat show to cater for people living in North of Birmingham would be a great idea. I no longer go to Excel but spend my time at Southampton.
January 29 11:44
Jonathan Richards
It doesn't take a great deal of imagination - sorry - to realise the potential Liverpool has. The city has transformed itself in the last decade. it's vibtrant, trendy, safe, affluent (relatively speaking) and fun-loving. In the shape of the Albert Dock it probably has one of the best (the best?) potential boat show venue in Europe. History, architecture, restaurants, bars. What's not to like? The north of England needs a boat show and i suspect Liverpool will be the city that delivers it.