The research results of charter companies in Croatia

Abstract

Demand for Croatia as a nautical country constantly maintains the upward trend. The reason for this is the fact that Croatia is on the way to the EU integration as a future equal member state. This fact significantly contributes to Croatia’s openness to the generating market in both economical and in terms of tourism. Nautical tourism of Croatia is profitable which has been recognized by foreign entrepreneurs by directing their fleets to the Adriatic and developing successful and today frequently leading charter companies. The paper defines the charter activity and points out its characteristics. The purpose of the paper is to research, understand and set forth the attitudes of nautical tourists within the charter domain as an activity with the highest annual growth rate in nautical tourism. Methodology used in this paper was questionnaire based on three sections of questions. First section of questions refers to structure of charter companies, the second section of questions refers to the features of demand and season of 2009, and the third section of the questionnaire shows the expectations of charter companies for the season of 2010. Further on, the authors have additionally researched Slovenian charter companies and made the correlation of Slovenian and Croatian charter market.The research in this paper is descriptive, conducted on a one-time basis and on an intentionally selected sample. Based on the results, appropriate conclusions and attitudes have been made also incorporating specific views regarding the quality improvement of a nautical tourist product and charter offer.

Digital Business Models in the Hospitality Sector: Comparing Hotel Bookings with Yacht Charter Bookings

“…The importance of digital services in the yacht charter segment is evidenced by previous work [47,49,50] showing that advertising on the Internet is the most important form of advertising for charters in nautical tourism, with a share of over 50%, indicating the importance of digital channels and indirectly digital business models for charter activities in nautical tourism. In Kalči's [50] study, most participants indicated that they prefer to book a yacht charter over the Internet rather than via telephone or face-to-face contact.…”

“…Operationally, yacht charter activity is carried out by specialized charter companies. From the work of Gračan et al [47], it is clear that a charter company is essentially a company that carries out the activity of renting yachts, where it can rent its own yachts or the yachts of others on the basis of a charter management contract. The specificity of charter companies is that they form and maintain fleets of vessels and commercially manage these fleets, including their technical maintenance and commercial use of their capacities.…”

Eco-Friendly Tourism Decision Making during COVID-19—Sailing Tourism Example

“…Sailors visiting ports constitute a great purchasing power and generate demand for various services, thus stimulating the development of local entrepreneurship [15]. Charter services are treated in some countries, such as Croatia, as a key element of the tourism economy [16]. During a pandemic, however, it is important to note that the specificity of sailing tourism may make it resistant to many limitations of the situation.…”