TRADITIONAL SAILING SHIPS AS INDIGENOUS DALMATIAN NAUTICAL PRODUCT
Creators: name: Sreæko Favro
Publisher: name: Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad, Serbia
Year: 2015
Subjects: nautical tourism
sailing ships
cruising
touristic port
traditional port
maritime heritage

description: TURIZAM; Vol 19, No 4, 2015. ISSN 1821-1127
description: Modern tourist movements of the development of selective tourism forms have offered an opportunity
to implement the valorisation of Croatian littoral area through the development of nautical
tourism in all its forms, cruising included. As opposed to international cruise market, where
the main word have cruisers with few hundred to several thousand passengers, a special type of
multi-day cruising or excursion cruising along Croatian coast on traditional Croatian sailing
ships has significantly developed in the last few years. Wooden sailing ships have a magical power
to attract. They won’t pass unnoticed regardless a huge competition of new trends in constructing
technologically perfect modern mega-yachts and the most sophisticated mega-cruisers. In this
paper, several traditional sailing ships will be described. They were primary intended to transport
cargo, and today they’re renovated with saloons, kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, air-conditioners and
satellite TV receivers. Modern usage of this, for Croatian culture, important indigenous product
promotes specificities of Croatian maritime and shipbuilding tradition, creates recognition and
authenticity of nautical tourism in Croatia and creates also numerous other positive effects such
as promotion of middle and small shipbuilding and employment of local inhabitants on islands
that at the same time prevents their depopulation. In order to achieve full potential of this form of
Croatian nautical offer it is necessary to invest and to motivate main carriers of activities – small
ship owners. Besides the need for economic incentives, it is also very important a joint defining of
maritime routes for touristic cruising in the way to select ports that, with the state support, would
be renovated to accept cruisers. It is also necessary to set a system of planned cruises and berth reservations
by a careful selection of favourable locations. This would enable organisation stages and
coordination within the ports, and at the same time it would enable a better efficiency and synergy
economic effect of all business subjects in the destination. The most important thing within the
selected ports is to enable to small cruisers a safe berth and in order to provide the main function
of such port it is necessary to construct all required infrastructure (SRNTH, HHI 2006).
An overview of selected ports to organise berths and to offer services to tourists on traditional
sailing ships will be given in this paper, as well as several proposed routes for sailing in the Splitsko-Dalmatinska
County. Project implementation will use the possibility to develop certain historical
ports along the coast and on islands, with all their specific features and customs that if
valorised in the right way can become the initiators of a revival of traditional maritime towns.