Source: More magazine
Greece is Croatia’s biggest competitor when it comes to nautical tourism. One of Croatia’s main advantages is the number of our marinas, writes More magazine.
The biggest advantage of Croatia’s nautical offer over Greece is the proximity of the islands, the fact that we are an auto-destination for a large part of European countries, and the number of marinas. The latter has now come into focus for the development of the Greek offer. The Greek Ministry of Tourism has marked the expansion of the marina network as a key item in its long-term tourism development strategy. Two years ago, we wrote about Greece’s plan to invest 160 million euros from EU funds in the modernization and digitalization of tourist ports.
Greece has meanwhile issued a call for projects and by the end of January this year received 41 plans for the reconstruction and modernization of national ports and marinas. In order to support these initiatives, the Greek government has secured 139 million euros in grants from the EU reconstruction and development funds, intended for the improvement of selected plans.
The total value of the received proposals for co-financing ports and marinas is around 185 million euros. The Ministry of Tourism is now in the process of evaluating these proposals to determine which ones will be included in the program. According to Greek media, a total of hundreds of millions of euros in investments in marinas and ports have been announced at this point, and many of the projects are several years or even a decade old. However, this year some of them have been moved from a dead end.
In addition to financial support, the Greek government is working to simplify the legislation and procedures for obtaining permits for port and marina projects, in order to encourage investors to invest.
The announced further investment in the marina network in Greece also means greater competition for the Croatian nautical offer. This mainly applies to Italians, who, dissatisfied with the service and prices in Croatia, are increasingly turning their heads south, towards Greece. The lack of marinas in Greece is the most important drawback for the further development of charter in that country, and when they expand the marina network, charter will strengthen.
