As Morski writes on the 19th of April, 2019, Croatia’s nautical tourism season has already started, beginning about a month ago and lasts the longest of all, for about eight months in total. What can be expected this season and whether or not the Greeks have taken away part of what would have been Croatian guests due to the Greek state’s measures, are just a couple of the issues that Robert Pende, an assistant in the Croatian Ministry of Tourism, Roko Vuletić, the president of HUP’s nautical sector and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce’s Sean Lisjak discussed on HTV’s “Good morning, Croatia” show.
Robert Pende stated the nautical season has just begun, and so far we have room to be satisfied and we can expect the season to be on the same level as last year.
Vuletić said that according to field information, the data isn’t so great.
“We’re the leaders in the world in one segment of nautical tourism, and that’s renting a boat without a crew. We’re receiving information from our colleagues who have charter agencies that some existing reservations have been canceled due to Croatia’s price increases, which has been a big trend in recent years, although charter agencies raised their prices the least, given the growth of offers and competition,” said Vuletić.
He added that guests are increasingly looking for package deals and that there are less and less classic nautical guests – they’re wanting to have a whole package, from airline transfers, accommodation, gastronomic offers, and all of that has increased in price, including in marinas.
”In combination with the announced recession, people are becoming more cautious about what they’re spending, they want to go to new destinations, and Greece and Turkey are growing rapidly,” he said.
Lisjak said he was not afraid about people cancelling their reservations, he stated that Croatia’s nautical tourism sector is a vigorous activity and in the last fifteen years Croatia has had continuity. He added that Croatia needs to be careful because new markets are opening their doors that have recently been avoided for security and various other reasons. He added that believes that if Croatia manages to accomplish last year’s results despite all of that, then it can be satisfied.
He said that Croatia made 860 billion kuna from tourism last year and added that a way should be found to allow existing investors to invest in marinas.
He noted that a certain drop in transit has been recorded with the aforementioned Croatian price increases, adding that Croatia does have to be careful with its pricing policy and that the country needs to focus on being as competitive as possible.
Vuletić believes that boosting advertising activities on new markets needs to be done. Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are Croatia’s traditional markets, and the country should turn to the growing American or Scandinavian market, reports HRT.
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