Croatian marinas last year generated about HRK 812 million in revenue, which is 11% less than in 2019 but is an extremely good result for the year marked by the pandemic, said the president of the Marina Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), Sean Lisjak.

I believe that this year will be far better than last year, Lisjak said at a meeting of the HGK Marina Association.

Lisjak said that 2019 had been one of the best years for nautical tourism and marinas in the last ten years, and a revenue of about HRK 918 million was generated that year.

Last year was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, so they thought that staying on a boat was convenient and allowed for a certain solitude, and they weren’t wrong, Lisjak said.

According to him, last year’s nautical revenue of about HRK 812 million, which is a 11% decline on the year, is extremely good given the pandemic, during which some forms of tourism had significantly worse results.

Last year, marinas in the northern Adriatic performed better in terms of permanent berths and clients but not so well in terms of transit vessels, while marinas in southern Adriatic had a lot of transit vessels, Lisjak said.

All anti-epidemic preventative measures were implemented in the marinas, and this year 12 testing sites have been ensured in the marinas, so that visitors wouldn’t have to look for a place to get tested for coronavirus before returning to their home countries, he said.

ACI director Kristijan Pavic is optimistic about the coming season. The announcements are promising, guests are coming, and the results achieved in the first half of the year indicate that the season will be good, Pavic said.

(€1 = HRK 7.51)