Hong Kong has a long established leisure marine sector. The first regatta is recorded in 1864, and many active water sports clubs date from that era. There has been a huge expansion in leisure marine in Hong Kong since that time, with the Hong Kong SAR Government Marine Department acknowledging close to ten thousand registered powered leisure marine vessels to add to the thousands of unpowered leisure marine boats in Hong Kong. This makes Hong Kong the largest leisure marine market in Asia outside Japan.

To service this growth in leisure marine, the industry itself has grown significantly in recent decades from boat builders to brokers, yacht management and chartering, distributers and shops, clubs, marinas and training organisations, sailmakers, technical and professional services and specialised media.

Perhaps it is because many of the companies in this industry are small, or because of the different business types or the competition between the businesses involved, but somehow this multi-billion dollar turnover industry has remained unrepresented at all levels within Hong Kong and overseas. The Hongkong Boating Industry Association (Hong Kong BIA) has been established to rectify this situation.