Record numbers of foreign tourists in love with gozzo boats from Cantiere Mimì

Mimì gozzo boats are attracting increasing interest from foreign tourists in Italy, and particularly Americans, with unprecedented demand for these boats from charter companies, up 50% on last season.

The most popular destinations are Campania and the Cinque Terre in Liguria, two of the most famous and fascinating places in the world, while tourists’ nationalities are increasingly varied.

“For a couple of years now we’ve been seeing increasing demand from charter companies and there’s been a real boom this year: companies offering our models for charter are up 50% on last summer and we’re still receiving new orders,” commented Domenico Senese.

“This is an important opportunity for us not only in terms of sales and visibility,” the CEO of this Campania brand founded in 1975 explained, “but also because of the enormous number of hours clocked up by our charter boats, which enables us to monitor strengths and weaknesses much more quickly and press ahead with improvements in detailing and components across the entire range. And demand for customisation from charter agencies also keeps us on our toes, rethinking existing products and developing new ones.

In addition to rising demand, we’ve also seen a huge expansion of the areas explored by our gozzo boats. Until just a few years ago, the most popular area in Campania was the Sorrento peninsula, but today our tourists are cruising all the way along the coast from Naples to Salerno”. In this area, the gozzo models most in demand are from the Walkaround line, and especially the Libeccio 8.5, 9.5 and 11.

The other part of Italy seeing this boom is Liguria, or the Cinque Terre national park to be precise, a unique collection of villages in a magical natural setting. The models most in demand here are the Libeccio 7.5 and 8.5, which are ideal for exploring the area’s jagged coastline.

The latest development in this trend is the type of owner, which has for years been mixed in terms of age – with a marked increase in young owners and families – and is now even more varied in terms of geographical origin. Tourists organising their holidays in Italy are in fact no longer prevalently European: the most numerous group this summer is from the United States, in love with every aspect of ‘Made in Italy’, including the allure of a family-run brand that has brought together tradition and modernity.