European yacht companies have turned their eyes to China as their home market still suffers from economic crisis.

Vincenzo Poerio, CEO of Benetti Yachts, a leading Italian mega yacht maker, says they sold two over 50-meter-long luxury mega yachts in the Chinese mainland over the past six months.

China is a promising market, Poerio was quoted as saying on Monday by Sina.com, China’s major portal website.

He said Benetti could manage to sell smaller boats only in China in the past.

Paolo Casani, CEO of Azimut Yachts, another Italian maker, said the majority of their clients are CEO of Chinese enterprises, adding they had rising numbers of state-owned enterprise buyers recently.

He told Sina.com that most of their buyers were from coastal cities in southern China in the past.

But they had more corporate clients from Shanghai and Beijing over the past one or two years, Casani said, adding they fancy bigger yachts compared to southern customers, according to Sina.com.

Yachting, a major pastime of affluent Americans and Europeans, is increasingly becoming popular among the rich in China as a show of wealth.

Though China still makes up a small part of the global yacht market currently, the future looks promising.

Demand for private yachts has gained traction in China in recent years. According to the 2010 Hurun Wealth Report, there are at least 875,000 millionaires on the Chinese mainland, and half have indicated they intend to purchase a private yacht.

Total sales of the global yacht market was about $54 billion in 2011, while it just reached $3.6 billion in China, according to a statistics by the World Luxury Association.