A round-up of the biggest, brightest and best boat shows to look out for next year.

The third annual Hainan Rendez-Vous, China’s leading superyacht and business jet show, will be held on the 5th-8th of April 2012.

The show is becoming a landmark event for China’s affluent and influential decision makers providing them with a platform for top level communication and collaboration.

The show’s fantastic turnout is due in part to the fact that Hainan is becoming a key yachting hub for China.

After four thrilling days of exclusive parties, glamourous entertainment and intense networking, the Hainan Rendez-Vous 2011 ended last Monday leaving no doubt about its status as the region’s leading yacht show.

The superyacht show, which also incorporates a business jet exhibit and displays of luxury properties and high-end brands, once again drew crowds of China’s most affluent individuals to Sanya city in the ‘Chinese Riviera’ of Hainan Island.

This year’s edition had twice as many exhibitors as last year’s Hainan Rendez-Vous, and generated several billion RMB worth of transactions.

The marketing spin has been that Hainan Island is the “Hawaii of China” but up until the past 12 months the reality has not quite matched the hype.

Times, though, are fast changing on China’s southernmost territory with the local government this year adding duty-free shopping and opening up its pristine waters to the international yachting community in an effort to lure more tourists to the island.

Hainan, which boasts a tropical climate, is also undergoing a resort-building boom with the Hilton and Marriott chains already this year becoming the latest to develop sites on the island which only saw its first “international-style” resort built in 1999.

Organisers of the second edition of Hainan Rendez-Vous, Asia’s first and only private aviation lifestyle exhibition, announced today that some 250 of the region’s business elites will be flown by private jet to their April 1-4 show in Hainan, a tropical island that is fast developing into China’s version of the French Riviera.

Showcasing the world’s finest private jets, Hainan Rendez-Vous 2011 provides an ideal communication platform for manufacturers and buyers of business aircraft.

It is the only Business-to-VIP-Customer aircraft exhibition in the whole of Asia, and the region’s only show where exhibiting private jet manufacturers actually fly in such a large number of show attendees from their city of origin and back.

In total the event, which also includes a yacht exhibit and luxury property and brands shows, is expected to draw some 8,000 high net worth individuals this year.

After years of waiting for China to lift heavy restrictions on airspace, wealthy travellers and aircraft manufacturers have reason to celebrate — the country’s skies are opening up to private flights.

The makers of helicopters and small business jets are predicting a major bump in sales — France’s Dassault Falcon just moved its Asia office from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which it called the new “centre of gravity” for the market.

The private air travel industry “will be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the next 10 years”, Frank Lee, chairman of China Private Aviation Company, a consultancy offering aircraft acquisition and charter services, told AFP.