WYS
Webinar Series · Edition 1
Key Insights · February 2026
From Anchorage to Itinerary:
Unlocking Emerging Charter Destinations
Key insights from our inaugural WYS Webinar featuring industry experts on market readiness, regulatory frameworks, and the future of charter in the Red Sea and beyond.
February 2026
Featured Speakers
01
What Makes a Destination Charter-Ready?
The discussion opened with a fundamental question: at what stage can an emerging destination begin seriously marketing itself to charter companies? Liza distilled it into three pillars:
“Arriving to a beautiful destination but getting stuck in customs for four hours is not something boat tourists will like — just as land tourists wouldn’t.”
— Liza, Sea Alliance Group
Liza also noted that emerging destinations tend to attract superyachts first, before smaller vessels follow. She pointed to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates as examples of this pattern playing out in real time.
02
Marina Readiness: Three Phases to Charter Operations
From an operator’s perspective, Daniel drew a clear distinction between a marina opening and a marina being truly charter-ready. Based on IGY’s experience, he outlined three phases:
“Opening and being charter-ready are two very different moments. Charter-readiness is about being able to repeat that delivery day in, day out in a safe, consistent, low-friction service.”
— Daniel, IGY Marinas
One practical example: in Saudi Arabia, most visiting yachts run on 50Hz systems while the country’s grid runs at 60Hz. Identifying this early and installing conversion infrastructure before guests arrived avoided a significant operational friction point.
03
Destination Demand: What Charter Data Reveals
Candice brought data from Charter Itinerary’s platform to illustrate how destination popularity is driven by broker and captain demand. The top three charter countries for yachts over 24 metres have remained consistent over five years:
“The guests are wanting more and more. Since COVID, the charter itself is not all about the yacht — what’s ashore is just as important for the charter guest.”
— Candice Christensen, Charter Itinerary
The most notable shift in 2024–2025 data was a marked increase in Red Sea charters and the Far East — particularly Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines, which had almost no charter activity the prior year.
04
Building a Regulatory Framework: Lessons from the Red Sea
Mohamed offered a government perspective on how the Saudi Sea Authority approached creating a coastal tourism ecosystem from scratch. Within its first three years, the authority issued seven core regulations covering:
“We did not invent regulation — but we wanted to put in place the roadmap so businesses know their dos and don’ts.”
— Mohamed Bukhari, Saudi Sea Authority
05
The Marina as Orchestrator
“The marina is the professional — the entity that knows where the industry is going, what the client wants, and what is new. The immigration officer is not a superyacht marketing expert.”
— Liza, Sea Alliance Group
Through coordinated WhatsApp groups, scheduled arrival windows, and single-point-of-contact communication, IGY reduces friction across all stakeholder touchpoints. The consensus: this orchestration role is not just logistical — it is strategic.
06
Balancing Growth and Sustainability
“Undiscovered or untouched doesn’t need to mean hard to reach. The two can live together.”
— Liza, Sea Alliance Group
All speakers converged on the same conclusion: managed access is not a barrier to growth — it is a prerequisite for long-term viability. Liza introduced two key concepts: managed remoteness and barefoot luxury — the client-facing experience of exclusivity and untouched nature that high-value guests increasingly seek.
“The charter market doesn’t reward destinations that are solely beautiful — it rewards destinations that are operationally intelligent.”
— Antonis, audience member
07
The Technology Gap — and the Opportunity
Candice pointed to the industry’s historically slow adoption of technology as the most significant external factor holding back charter operators. Charter Itinerary was built precisely to address this gap.
“The yachting industry had fallen behind in using technology to save time and provide the best possible product to clients. There was a fear of technology — but that’s slowly changing.”
— Candice Christensen, Charter Itinerary
Closing Perspective
The future of charter growth lies not in discovering beautiful new places alone, but in the intelligent, collaborative work of turning those places into operationally reliable destinations. That work requires governments willing to pave the regulatory road, marina operators able to orchestrate the stakeholder ecosystem, technology providers simplifying the workflow, and charter managers connecting it all with the client.
The Red Sea is perhaps the most visible example of this process underway in real time — and it will not be the last.
WYS Webinar Series
