On the occasion of the ACI Day marked on July 1st, Croatian minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli visited ACI Marina Opatija in Ičići.
With a brief commemorative musical-stage performance in the chakavian dialect, the children from the chorus “Mularija” of the Ičići branch school showed to the minister and the attendants the atmosphere of life in the Kvarner region. ACI’s director Kristijan Pavić and the minister have then visited the marina and the boat hosting the Nautical Patrol of the newspaper Jutarnji list.
The Nautical Patrol project, whose crew will sail on ACI’s boat Maslina, foresees visiting 33 marinas along the Croatian coast and conducting a survey among 1100 boaters. The survey will assess and compare the quality of the service in the marinas in order to improve the quality of Croatian nautical tourism.
“Nautical tourism is definitely one of Croatia’s product images that highlights the most beautiful that Croatia has, and a major contributor to the development of this tourist product is also ACI which manages 22 marinas along the coast and continuously invests in the quality of services and offers. Nautics is a very important segment of Croatia’s tourist offer and we will give a stronger momentum to the promotion of nautical tourism, especially due to the strong interest coming from the European market.” underlined Capelli, adding that the Ministry of Tourism is planning to establish a special department dealing with nautical tourism within the Ministry itself.
ACI’s Director, Kristijan Pavić, pointed out the fact that ACI records an increase in the number of vessels on both the annual berth and transit routes, and praised the Nautical Patrol project: “We are happy to join the Nautical Patrol project as it is a great way to explore nautical tourism in Croatia from another perspective and to get to know the real conditions in the marinas. The poll results will be used by ACI so that during the winter we can better prepare for the next nautical season. “