Revenues of nautical ports in 2015 increased to 753 million kuna

In 121 nautical tourism port in Croatia, a total revenue of 753 million kuna was generated last year, excluding VAT, which is 5.1 percent higher than the previous year, primarily driven by an increase in other revenues and service income in these ports, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

Although last year, as in previous years, the majority or nearly 70 percent of the total revenue of nautical ports, amounting to 519 million kuna, was generated from the rental of berths, this represents a decline of 1.6 percent compared to 2014. Last year, there were nine more nautical ports in Croatia than in 2014, totaling 121 ports, which had approximately 17,350 berths on the last day of the year, with the majority of the ports being marinas (70), while the remaining 51 fall under the category of other nautical tourism ports.

On December 31 of last year, nearly 13.4 thousand vessels were permanently moored in all nautical tourism ports, which is 3 percent less than on the same date in 2014. According to the flag of the vessels, the highest number of permanently moored vessels was from Croatia (43.6 percent), followed by Austria (16.6 percent), Germany (15.2 percent), Italy and Slovenia (5.2 percent each), and the United Kingdom (2.3 percent). When observing the structure of berth revenues in these ports, the majority of the 519 million kuna, or 416.1 million kuna, was generated from the rental of permanent berths, which is also less than the previous year by nearly 2 percent, while a smaller decline of 0.5 percent was recorded with 103.2 million kuna in revenue from the rental of transit berths.

Other revenues from all nautical ports amounted to nearly 177 million kuna last year, representing an increase of 26 percent compared to 2014, while revenues from service activities also increased by 18.3 percent, reaching 57.2 million kuna. The highest revenue was in Zadar County, the largest increase in Split County, and the only decline in Istria.

Among the Adriatic counties, the most nautical ports last year, 36, were in Zadar County, followed by 27 in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and 20 in Split-Dalmatia County. However, the highest revenue last year, nearly 195 million kuna or 0.4 percent more than in 2014, was generated in the nautical ports of Šibenik-Knin County. With a revenue of 154.7 million kuna and an increase of 2.4 percent, the nautical ports of Zadar County follow, while Split-Dalmatia County, with a revenue of 146.3 million kuna, ranks third but first in revenue growth at 19.2 percent compared to 2014. Nautical ports in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County also achieved a double-digit revenue increase of 13.1 percent, reaching 110.7 million kuna, while Istria County, with 113.2 million kuna, was the only one on the Adriatic that experienced a revenue decline in nautical ports of nearly 4 percent. In Dubrovnik-Neretva County, these ports generated 33.4 million kuna in revenue, or 1.5 percent more than in 2014.

Commenting on these DZS data, the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK) emphasizes that the trend of increasing total revenues of nautical tourism ports has been ongoing since 2002, which they partly attribute to the increase in the number of these ports.

– The increase in revenue and the number of nautical tourism ports during this period indicates a certain tendency towards consumption by nautical tourists, according to HGK.

The number of vessels in transit in nautical tourism ports in 2015 was 193,450, which is 6.7 percent more than in 2014. By type of vessel in transit using sea berths, 64.1 percent were sailing yachts, 32.1 percent were motor yachts, and 3.8 percent were other vessels.

During this period, the highest number of vessels in transit came from Croatia (46.7 percent), Italy (16.5 percent), Germany (12 percent), Austria (7.4 percent), and Slovenia (4.2 percent), accounting for 86.8 percent of the total number of vessels in transit.