The season in the marinas, which goes on for as long as the weather is nice when it comes to Croatian nautical tourism, has remained at the level of last year, which was excellent.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes on the 15th of September, 2019, unlike Croatian “terrestrial” accommodation, nautical tourism didn’t experience any particular slumps this season. Plus, the number of overnight stays achieved in the nautical tourism sector is higher than in all other segments of Croatian accommodation, and the number of charters, or the number of vessels available for rent and the transporting passengers, has increased.
The impression from Croatian marinas this year is that their season, which, as previously mentioned, goes on for as long as the weather conditions allow, has remained at the level of last year’s season, which was excellent.
“On the eve of the season, we were cautious because of the announcement of the return of our competitors from Greece and Turkey to the market, but we’re pleased that the peak season is over,” said Sean Lisjak, president of the marina association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), while awaiting the official results from Croatian marinas.
Everyone who had the impression that sea traffic on the Croatian Adriatic was increasing this year was right, statistics confirm. In the registers of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, in the period until the end of August, a total of 750 vessels (both cargo and passenger), 126,000 various purpose boats and 3,100 motor yachts were recorded in Croatian waters. An average of 60,000 foreign yachts and boats sailing to Croatian ports is still to be added, the aforementioned ministry has noted.
By the beginning of September 2019, a total of 353.7 thousand boats were registered in the area of supervision of all eight harbour master’s in Croatia, an increase of 2.17 percent over the previous year and about 0.13 percent more newly registered yachts. When it comes to Croatian nautical tourism, the number of boats for charter this year increased by 7.5 percent, from last year’s 8,256 up to an encouraging 8908 boats, while the number of passenger boats slightly decreased, down to 2,208.
There were 3,115 yachts on the Croatian Adriatic, of which 2,328 were chartered, which is an increase of about 150 yachts.
Most boats were rented in the Split region, and their number increased by two hundred boats this summer (2,513 in total), followed by the Zadar area, where a hundred or so more boats were rented this summer (1,619). This year, 1,352 boats were rented in the area of the habour master’s office in Rijeka, followed by the Šibenik and the Istrian regions, while the least boats were rented around Dubrovnik, although there has been an increase of about 100 vessels (706 in total).
Croatia is known as the world’s largest charter destination, which is a label that will stick and continues this year with this continued growth in traffic.
According to the ministry, by mid-August, a total of 2,850 yacht and boat rental companies were registered on the Croatian market.
The increase in nautical traffic was also recorded by the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ), whose eCrew boat registration system showed a three percent increase in arrivals by the beginning of September and an eight percent increase in terms of overnight stays.
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