Croatia Online - Boat Show Special 1

Those of you who read our posting on Boat Shows will remember that we suggested that they are yet to become a family day out. Well, things are changing with the Croatia Boat Show in Split, on this week. There are more big boats and a number of distractions for those for whom boats are not a major occupation.

From an industry point of view, the improvement in organisation is just as striking as the overall growth in size of the show over such a short space of time. Plenty of time to get stands fitted up, great marketing and not quite such a long queue to get passes organised.

Croatia Online’s biggest problem at the moment is to get hold of the breaking news during the show. If this Boat Show really wants to get itself on the International Map, then it needs to make life easier for those that want to help to promote it in another language other than Croatian. The Press Office is clearly hard pressed for time but the obvious answer is to make the most of the website. When we looked at it last night, it appeared it was last updated in October 2005.

We’ll be pursuing this issue during the week but in the meantime, our on the ground research reveals that the government suggested today, at the conference on strategy for the nautical tourism industry, that a further 22,000 berths could become available in Croatia. It was not obvious what plans there were to achieve this.

Goran Ivanisevic, a great and charismatic tennis champion, spent a long time at the show over the weekend and was a true gentleman when asked if he would have his photo taken for Croatia Online. Read more about him on http://www.goranivanisevic.com/.