Roundtable: Broward’s marine industry Tim Davey, Founder & Managing Director, Global Marine Travel Bob Denison, President & Founder, Denison Yacht Sales Michelle Fee, Founder & CEO, Cruise Planners Peter Hult, CEO, VIKAND

®oundtable:

Broward’s marine industry

For those selling boats, the pandemic year propelled major gains, but on the cruise side of the industry, it was another story.

Tim Davey

Founder & Managing Director Global Marine Travel

What challenges have you faced in supporting crews during COVID? The most disappointing thing for me throughout COVID has been the lack of understanding of the contribution that seafarers make, not just to the South Florida economy but to the entire global economy. We needed to convince so many local leaders and governments of the value of seafarers and their importance in the whole supply chain. We had to explain why we needed to get these crew relieved from their vessels, as well as the danger of fatigue for the seafarers.

The Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing, which we recently signed, really helps bring the importance of seafarers to the spotlight. There’s still a lot more work to be done. If we ever have a situation like this again, there should be no question of exempting seafarers.

What are your top priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? We take the approach that we are going to be really busy. Much busier, in fact, than we were with pre-COVID levels. The approach we’re taking now is going back to the basics with colleagues and booking agents to make sure they have all the right tools to help our customers in the most accurate way.

We’re spending time educating our team to not rush on to the next booking but to take the time to get the correct information from the customer to make sure they get on their way as fast as possible.

There will be a rush of travel coming — that is imminent — so we want to make sure that we are rock solid when that happens.

Bob Denison

President & Founder Denison Yacht Sales

How would you characterize 2020 for Denison Yacht Sales? It has been a tricky year. After March 11, we were really concerned we might never be able to sell another boat again. We saw the stock market dropping like crazy and we sell a product that people want rather than need. It is one of those ultimate luxury products with which you can experientially have a fantastic time with friends and family in a totally unique, exclusive type of experience. Unless you are a commercial fisherman, you do not need a boat. Many people in our industry were highly nervous about the outlook for the rest of the year. It did get absolutely terrifying for about three or four weeks. By the fifth week, we were into the thick of people quarantining, and isolation and social distancing was going to be a reality for a while and there were no games, no cruise ships. But boating is one of the safe things you can do. It caused a major swell of interest in our industry right around early May and we’ve been riding that wave since.

What innovations have stemmed from the pandemic? Even prior to the pandemic, we were a highly digitally minded company. We are younger in our space and we have an in-house team of what we consider to be the best marketing minds in our industry. We’ve been using technology to not only find and reach out to new customers and clients but to take better care of people, especially in 2020. There are a lot of great real estate firms that have done a great job of communicating with somebody selling their asset through a well-established, real-time dashboard. We developed a similar platform for people selling their yachts.

Michelle Fee

Founder & CEO Cruise Planners

What were some of your highlights from the past year? This year has been nothing short of excruciating for travel due to COVID. We just knew right at the start that we’d have to figure out how to get through this. By that I mean, not only the headquarters surviving but also our travel advisers across the country. The cruise and travel companies realized the same thing and they understood that they were going to need all of us to help rebuild the industry and almost a year later, we’re hopeful and optimistic that it is going to happen. Certainly, many travel partners supported travel advisers by paying commissions on certain travel and they continue to do that so we can keep going out there and selling di erent types of vacation packages and cruises, in spite of the fact that the dates keep moving as cancelations were extended. But there’s a pent-up demand and people absolutely still want to travel.

What are some important steps in making a franchise business work? Find out what works for you. One thing we do well — and can do because we’re a privately-held company — is reinvest back into the business. That concept is the root of our ethos: we built everything in-house laboriously over many years. It’s not necessarily what your bottom line is, it’s more important to do the right thing and to figure out what works for your company. My co-owner, Vicky Garcia, and I believe that the bottom line will happen. That explains somewhat how we started a franchise company with only five people that has expanded to 2,500-plus franchise owners running their own home-based travel agencies. The fact is, we do what is right for our network. What were some company milestones in the past year? We are a global healthcare company providing services to the cruise, yacht, and commercial shipping industry, so it was an interesting year. In February and March, the cruise industry shut down suddenly, stopping ships all over the world. According to maritime law, whenever there is a medical problem on a ship, you are allowed to seek higher care at your nearest port. But overnight, no ports in the world would accept any ships that wanted to access higher levels of care. So, there were many ships scattered all over the world, many with COVID cases onboard, and many of those became incredibly serious. People got worse, and then people started dying, because nations were not engaging. What we take away from this past year, something that we think is incredibly valuable, is the fact of a focus on good public health and medical services. If you look at the word “healthcare,” health is the proactive aspect of reducing issues, care is where you take care of situations already occurring. Public health, for us, is creating a safe environment. As a result of this past year, there is now a tremendous focus on public health. As a result of that, we’re going to see a decrease of communicable diseases and improved health generally. In the maritime industry, already before the pandemic, we had a very safe environment with a strong public health focus. Now, after the pandemic, that focus has increased.

Is the cruise industry at the vanguard of safety? The cruise industry has done a really good job in creating excellent protocols and procedures. There is no environment out there today that understands healthcare and safety better than the cruise industry.

Peter Hult

CEO VIKAND