April the 20th, 2022 - The blossoming Croatian nautical tourism sector has high hopes for the upcoming summer tourist season, with reason to believe that 2022's summer season could be even better than the record one of pre-pandemic 2019.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, if there are no major surprises in the geopolitical and epidemiological field, all indications are that for Croatian nautical tourism in 2022 in Croatia, traffic could exceed the pre-pandemic year 2019, with this sector already receiving its very first guests.

Good occupancy

According to eVisitor, from the beginning of the year until Easter itself, 13,000 arrivals and 61,000 overnight stays were realised in the Croatian nautical tourism sector, which marks an increase of 115 percent in terms of arrivals and 130 percent in terms of overnight stays when compared to last year.

Compared to the same period back in pre-pandemic 2019, it is also an increase of 6 percent in arrivals and 10 percent in overnight stays. The highest number of overnight stays in the Croatian nautical tourism sector are being realised in Split-Dalmatia, Zadar and Sibenik-Knin counties, and the highest number of overnight stays has been being realised by Austrians, Germans, Czechs, Poles and Slovenes.

"The charter lists are already pretty well filled. A significant number of departures on the booking lists are set to begin from the end of May, with June, July and August generally being filled with more than 70 percent of the capacity. September is traditionally a well-filled month, and because the prices are slightly lower than they are in the main season, and the crowds in the marinas aren't as heavy as they are during the very height of the season. Given the situation over in Ukraine, charters did notice a stalemate in reservations for the month of March. Despite that, it's good that the charters this season have mostly not resorted to approving big discounts on reservations,'' said Selma Cmelik, the founder of the čarter.hr/charter.hr platform.

Currently, the biggest problem for the Croatian nautical tourism sector is the overall increase in costs for external service services, such as cleaning services, gas suppliers, and spare parts. As Cmelik explained, charters cannot increase the price of their services, because all reservations have so far been paid in advance.

It is also not popular to increase rental prices when the season has already begun. Sean Lisjak, president of the marina association at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), explained that the competition across the rest of the Mediterranean has already started, which is why marinas here in Croatia will mostly stick to last year's prices of services this year. For now, the marinas are expected to surpass 2019's enviable figures.

"Although we don't have all the aggregate data for last year's business, we already know that the sector achieved almost the same amount in terms of turnover from 2019 last year, and according to announcements and reservations, this year should be even stronger if there are no major shocks elsewhere in Europe. Sailors are specific guests, they are loyal to this type of vacation, they have their own boats, nothing really bothered them during the pandemic because they're separated from other tourists,'' explained Lisjak.

The national marina chain, ACI, also pointed out that the previous season was already very good when compared to 2019, especially in the third quarter, when the most significant results were achieved.

"When we talk about the coronavirus pandemic, Croatian nautical tourism has really proved to be the most resilient type of all. People can stay undisturbed on their own or rented boats practically in isolation, and a safe holiday and stay in our marinas is guaranteed by the Safe stay in Croatia label, which is boasted by all ACI marinas. We're also witnessing a situation where an increasing number of countries have fully opened up or are opening up in the context of epidemiological measures and travel. When we talk about the geopolitical situation in Europe and its impact on the tourist and nautical season, it's too soon to say too much, but we expect the continuation of positive tourist trends this season as well.

At the moment, everything is in favour of things going well. The Croatian nautical season usually starts around Easter. So far, there have been no significant cancellations and all activities in the marinas are taking place as usual. Therefore, we can say that we're optimistic about the beginning of the pre-season and the season itself,'' they stated from ACI, which enjoyed growth in 2021 in terms of sales revenue of 35.9 million kuna, or 21 percent more when compared to 2020.

For more on Croatian nautical tourism, make sure to check out our travel section.

October the 29th, 2021 - The Croatian Charter.hr (čarter.hr) platform has been in use since the end of September, and the blossoming Croatian nautical tourism sector has a brand new place at its disposal when it comes to securing all relevant information for business operations in future.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, following one year of preparation, the Croatian charter.hr portal has officially been launched by Selma Cmelik, a tourist communication specialist with many years of experience working in charter and the owner of the digital marketing agency Zona Plus. Her idea was to gather all the information, tools, guidelines and various resources necessary for more successful business of nautical charter companies in this country, but also to encourage digitalisation in the sector.

“As someone who worked in the charter industry and is now in digital marketing, I felt the need to create a website that would have all that important information for everyday charter business, but which also contains ideas, tools and resources in the form of statistical reports and trends within this industry.

That hasn't been the case here on the Croatian market so far. As a former charter employee, I know how challenging it can be to get hold of all of the relevant information, especially when it comes to tax and legislative guidance. The development of digitalisation has also provided more and more opportunities, but there was still almost nothing dedicated to the charter industry.

We always had to compare ourselves with the hotel sector, we had to depend on the choice of individual service providers and apart from specialised fairs there was no place to find a good choice of solutions. Therefore, I expect that the charter sector will have multiple benefits from this project,'' explained Cmelnik.

The Croatian charter.hr platform is primarily intended for professionals in nautical charter, directors, managers, operatives in charter bases and reservation departments. It also connects all other services naturally based on this industry, and so it represents an opportunity to connect companies that offer their products and services to charter companies.

“Basically, the Croatian charter.hr platform is a place that advocates the digitalisation and optimisation of nautical charter. We plan to publish articles on various business topics, e-books talking about trends from within the industry, and about digital tools as necessary things for the automation and optimisation of business processes. We'll do our best to conduct some research in order to assess the needs of the industry well and address them correctly,'' announced the entrepreneur.

The plan is for the Croatian charter.hr platform to eventually become a membership platform where members will have additional benefits such as legal, tax and accounting advice and services at their disposal, but more content needs to be added to reach that goal. Currently, the web space for services is free until the end of the year, but the plan is to start with toll packages from January 2022 in order to make the portal sustainable.

“At the moment, all companies that have something to offer to charters and want to present their products or services can contact us and we'll set up a page for them for free. We've agreed cooperation with experts in insurance, finance, digital marketing and sales. They create content that is interesting and needed by users. My goal is to make the content on the web really relevant and useful,'' concluded Cmelnik.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.