More and more foreigners from European, but also other, more distan countries, want to organize their business trips on the Adriatic, participating in the business sailing races. Many of them are meant to be team building exercizes for those able and willing to pay top money for such an event, and some are even championships of their landlocked countries!
And we really do mean top money – organisers of such events tell Slobodna Dalmacija that one such sailing race in May on the 14-meter boats costs around 100,000 euros! So, a small apartment in most towns in Croatia spent on a week of fun for 200-250 people, in pre-season, which is about to start.
During high season such events don’t really take place, probably because there’s just too many people around for those business guests who are willing to pay to see the best of Croatia through sailing.
Mario Malenica, one of the organizers of such events for foreign clients, explains to Slobodna that the business is growing, and there are around 120 organized per year – and his company alone does around 20 of them. There are rules and regulations involved, and you need to have a lot of supporting equipment and staff to be able to succesfully organize such an event and have satisfied clients. There is always an option for meals to be prepared on the boat, or in various ports, whatever the clients want – that can be arragned.
Most clients for the business sailing races are Russians, Slovakians, Czech people and Austrians (they are the ones we mentioned with the national championships!), as well as Australians.
The usual routes for these races include Maslinica on Šolta, Milna on Brač, Palmižana on Hvar, Vis, but more and more of those clients want to get to Korčula in the South and Kremik in the North. What Croatian companies are offering is expanding to whatever the wealthy clients want on the Adriatic before and after the high tourist season.
