Tomislav Skračić, MA Undergraduate English Course for MARI TIME MANAGERS 5th Semester

1. Tomislav Skračić, MAUndergraduate English Course forMARITIME MANAGERS5th Semester • Essential reading: • T. Skračić, Waypoint – English Textbook for Maritime Students, Faculty of Maritime Studies, Split 2010, Units 22-28 • T. Trappe & G. Tullis, Intelligent Business, Longman 2005, Units 12-14

2. UNIT 24 Nautical tourism – Croatia'scompetitive product – part 2

3. Adriatic Croatia International Club

4. Adriatic Croatia International Club • Nautical tourism in Croatia cannot be separated from Adriatic Croatia International Club (ACI), which is the leading nautical company. ACI represents a unique chain of marinas in the Mediterranean. • The company was founded in Opatija in 1983, after the lack of standardised, high-quality services, which could meet a number of specific needs of nautical guests, became apparent. • The company has establishedmore than 20 marinas, which extend from Dubrovnik in the south to Umag in the north of the Adriatic.

5. ACI is a synonym for unique and synchronised nautical system with standardised marinas, realising more than 90% of total nautical trade in Croatia. • Croatian nautical tourism, thanks to its comparative advantages and the nautical company ACI whose business incorporates contemporary management principles, represents a generator of the new image of Croatian tourism.

6. ACI strategic tasks: • To develop nautical tourism that will be capable of fully valorising the comparativeadvantages of the Adriatic sea and coast, enabling the construction and utilisation ofthe appropriate facilities, generating optimum profits especially with regard to foreign currency inflow, and creating new jobs, that is, new and qualitative employment. • To provide services of standard and uniform quality to nautical tourists, and to guarantee the safety of navigation along the Adriatic.

7. ACI strategic tasks: To organise navigational security units along the entire coast and to provide efficient marine rescue services. To realise mutual cooperation with small businesses and other segments of the economy. To protect the environment by reducing and eliminating land-based and marine-based sources of pollution.

8. Market research • Each year the ACI Club conducts a market research by surveying guests staying at its marinas. These surveys focus on the opinions of nautical tourists regarding the tourism product, in general, and the nautical tourism product, in particular, with reference to service quality, service diversity, and value for money.

9. Market research • Nautical tourists are a specific type of tourism consumers and a crucial segment of the nautical tourism. Hence, greater insight to their needs and behaviour is of exceptional importance in planning the growth of this form of tourism. The gathered data present the basis for shaping guidelines and formulating strategies for the future development of nautical tourism.

11. results • The analysis of the attitudes of nautical tourists regarding the service quality in selected ACI marinas indicates that their expectations are tied to their basic travel motivations – leisure and relaxation, and getting away from the stress of daily life. • Hence, they have evaluated the quality of basic and supplementary service as being satisfactory.

12. With respect to the service provided by the marinas included in the research, the majority of nautical tourists gave the highest ratings to the following segments: friendliness and helpfulness of the staff, a sense of safety and security, and timely and precise information on weather conditions. • The analysis of nautical guest attitudes reveals that the main reasons for their visit are favourable natural features, and the majority of their objections are related to poor tourist superstructure.

13. Exercises Answer the following questions: • Do you know why ACY became ACI? • What do you know about ACI company? • What strategic tasks has ACI set? • What is the purpose of a market research? • What are the objectives of ACI's annual surveys? • What methodology does ACI use in the research? (scope, sample, type of questions) • What are the respondents' opinions given on: - basic services and facilities in ACI marinas? - improvements of service quality? - reasons for choosing Croatia as a destination?

14. Conclusion and strategy. • Nautical tourists have more purchasing power but a more subtle taste at the same time. As a rule, nautical tourists are usually wealthy individuals with a university or college degree, and in average, they spend more than other tourists during their stay in Croatia. In return, however, they demand superior servicequality. They look for "value for money" or a unique experience (experience for money). • Each time they come they seek a more diverse experience and they are extremely sensitive of the quality of the services.

15. High-quality service is a must for achieving these advantages while the price policy, as a decision making instrument, should be less important (nautical guests are not highly sensitive to price change due to their purchasing power). • The necessary advantages can be reached through authentic value or even better, through the synergy of local and global elements of the service giving priority to local features, e.g. authentic styles, ambience-friendly quality, and domestic cuisine.

16. ACI marinas are still lagging far behind the most prestigious Mediterranean marinas. The company, although being burdened with politics interference and conflicts within the lobby, has to be restructured and adapted to modern trends. State ownership must not be a synonym for stagnation and oversized structure, which cannot respond to market impulses. • It is not enough to adjust to the existing nautical trends only. Proactive marketing should define new services and attract new customers.

17. Development of competitive service should be accompanied by well-defined promotional activities, participation in nautical fairs aimed at creating a recognisable image on the nautical market. • ACI Club, as well as nautical tourism as a whole, has to become a recognisable brand evoking all its competitive advantages and its prestige. Nautical tourism realised through the ACI Club model provides an opportunity for repositioning Croatia as a prestigious micro destination of elite tourism with a competitive tourist service oriented towards nautical guests.

18. Exercises Answer the following questions: • Are scenic spots a motivation factor that is strong enough to attract nautical guests? • What are competitive (comparative) advantages of Croatia’s nautical tourism? • How can these potentials bring in more profits? • Should we pay more attention to a higher quality service or to the price policy? • Why is it important to create a recognisable brand on the nautical market? • Give a profile of an averagenautical tourist. • What is value for money?

19. Translate the following sentences into English: Problem izgradnje (make) jedne marine nije vezan toliko uz gradnju (build) objekata na kopnu i na moru, koliko uz konstruiranje (construct) neophodne infrastrukture i cestovnih komunikacija. Budući razvojni prioritet je inovativno poboljšanje ponude u uvjetima (in terms of) održivog razvoja.

20. Translate the following sentences into English: Marketinški koncept zahtijeva posebnu pozornost usmjerenu na (focused on) istraživanje tržišta. Što bi trebalo učiniti da bismo stvorili prepoznatljiv image i brand na nautičkom tržištu? Nautički turizam postaje sve traženiji (an ever more demanded) tip turizma koji može zadovoljiti (satisfy, meet) potrebe turista s višim očekivanjima.