The Cannes Yachting Festival has issued a retrospective account of its 49th edition, held from 8 to 13 September 2026 in the Vieux Port and Port Canto. The post-show release circulated on 16 September reports 56,000 visitors, 660 exhibitors and 700 boats, providing a fresh outcome-based story separate from pre-show previews and the numerous individual yacht launches already covered by Luxury Yacht Guide.

An important qualification is that the festival’s public homepage continues to display 56,600 visitors, more than 680 exhibitors and more than 710 boats. These published figures are inconsistent with the closing release, and no reconciliation is visible in the sources checked. LYG is therefore reporting the release as one dated set of figures, not claiming that the discrepancy has been resolved.

The closing release covers six days

The 16 September summary says almost 150 world premieres were included in the show fleet and gives a net exhibition area of approximately 100,000 square metres. It records 720 accredited journalists from 45 countries and identifies Constance Brément as the director overseeing her first edition in the role.

Attendance figures for the whole exhibition cannot be treated as attendance for the 12-to-23.99-metre segment. The event also included smaller boats, larger yachts, equipment companies and service providers, so the statistics describe the wider marine trade rather than Luxury Yacht Guide’s specific market.

One event, two different published sets of totals

The post-show report lists 56,000 visitors, 660 exhibitors and 700 vessels, while the still-accessible official homepage shows 56,600, more than 680 and more than 710 respectively. The difference is not merely a rounding adjustment across all three categories, particularly where exhibitor and boat counts are concerned.

Neither source examined explains whether the homepage uses advance estimates, a later revision or a different counting method. The correct editorial approach is to display the figures side by side, identify their origins and avoid calculating year-on-year growth from numbers whose definitions have not been confirmed.

Vieux Port concentrates the motor-yacht displays

According to the closing report, roughly 360 of the exhibited boats occupied Vieux Port, with motor yachts along the main quays and adjacent exhibition areas. The harbour also hosted propulsion, electronics, service and design exhibitors, creating an environment where a buyer could compare the vessel itself and the equipment that supports it.

The report places around 30 power catamarans in a dedicated village within the motor-oriented harbour. Their inclusion illustrates how the show’s arrangements separate broad vessel categories, but those 30 boats cannot automatically be assumed to fall within LYG’s length limit without model-level verification.

Port Canto contains sailing and day-boat areas

The organisers’ breakdown allocates approximately 340 vessels to Port Canto. Its Sailing Area included 120 new sailing yachts longer than ten metres, while the Power Boat Marina contained about 180 motorboats up to 13 metres, alongside other specialist spaces for brokerage and water-sports equipment.

These categories overlap both sides of LYG’s lower length threshold. Some sailing yachts over ten metres remain Leisure Boat Guide subjects, while many power boats under 13 metres are smaller than 12 metres; the exhibition summary does not replace checking the measured overall length of each specific model.

Brokerage numbers remain outside the yacht-size remit

The report describes almost 45 pre-owned yachts above 25 metres in the brokerage area. Those vessels are not part of Luxury Yacht Guide’s under-24-metre editorial list, and the number should not be folded into any count of suitable second-hand yachts for this publication.

Conversely, eligible yachts could appear in the main motor and sailing displays or at an individual builder’s berth. A useful buyer’s review still needs a verified exhibitor and model list rather than assuming that every boat in a named harbour belongs to the same size class.

Innovation was a cross-industry theme

The post-show account also revisits the Innovation Route programme, which addressed electrification, onboard intelligence, materials, navigation and marine biodiversity. LYG has already published the award results and individual product stories, so those winners are not being presented as new announcements in this closing report.

The significance of the final show figures lies in an overall accounting of the exhibition and the balance between its two harbour locations. That distinction matters for editorial planning: an event summary should not reproduce several existing model articles under a different headline.

The next edition is scheduled for September 2027

The closing information gives 7–12 September 2027 as the dates for the 50th Cannes Yachting Festival. For buyers planning a return, the two-harbour layout is a practical reference, but exhibitor participation and individual model debuts for the anniversary edition are not established by the 2026 attendance release.

Until the organiser clarifies the competing published totals, both sets should remain attributed and the difference transparent. The 16 September document supplies a genuine post-event development; it does not justify treating a headline visitor number as a precise measurement of sales, yacht orders or demand in any one vessel category.