Houston unveils summer boat show

An annual boat event was unveiled in the muggy U.S. city of Houston Thursday, possibly bringing some water fun to residents here who are dying for some cool-down entertainment. The 26th annual summer boat show, the largest of its kind in southern U.S., is being held in Reliant center in downtown Houston, the largest city of Texas. The event offers a vast selection of boats ranging from kayaks to yachts, from the latest high-tech fishing rigs to high-performance water sports machines. An estimated number of 220 boats are currently displayed in the spacious center, whose scale is not big compared with the January winter show. Some dealers told Xinhua they are now busy minding their sales as summer is the peak season. Dave Foulkrod, operation manager of Nautic Group, a major marine company based in Texas, said sales this year can be expected to boom. \"All the dealers in the state of Texas are seeing an improving market. For boat dealers in the Houston area, they generally have seen an improvement in business,\" he said. New models and products have been introduced in this summer show.\"Usually in the summer show, some of the dealers will sneak in the new products a little bit earlier. As I know, over here, we have got a couple of 2014 models and fresh new boats and ideal ships just a few days before the show opened,\" said the manager. The boat show will last for five days and receive thousands of visitors from Texas and other U.S. states.