Croatia Boat Show opens in Split

The Croatia Boat Show opened in the southern city of Split on Saturday, drawing 850 exhibitors with some 190 vessels.

Due to the current crisis, this year's Croatia Boat Show, the 12th of the kind, has seen a 30 percent decline in the number of participants as against 2008, said Vicenco Blagaic of the Profectus company, the organiser of the event.

Opening the fair, a state secretary at the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Mario Babic, said that the national boating tourism was recording increasingly good results by the year.

"In 2009, 15,480 boats and yachts entered Croatia's territorial waters, a four-percent increase in relation to 2008. More than 300,000 visitors arrived on board those vessels, eight percent more than in 2008," said Babic.

He added that the 2009 revenues of Croatian marinas amounted to HRK 540 million, 11 percent more than in 2008.

Babic said his ministry would soon send the government a bill on the maritime domain and sea ports containing changes regarding the construction of pleasure boat ports.

"We will simplify as much as possible the procedure for obtaining licences, notably those for the expansion of the existing marinas," said Babic.


(Hina)