Functioning of the management in ports of nautical tourism of the Republic of Croatia

Management of nautical tourism ports, by having general appropriate characteristics as well as characteristics related to business skills, can encourage development of related ports, which may result in direct and indirect impact on economy of the Republic of Croatia. For the purposes of this research work, there has been done a survey regarding management of eighteen (18) nautical tourism ports. The survey included issues such as general characteristics (gender, age), qualifications, as well as specific features like risk appetite, decision-making, use of scientific methods and similar. The research results indicate that nautical tourism management is not prone to risk which is mostly due to management’s age structure; increasing age decreases the desire for taking risks in decision-making. Management uses some group decision-making techniques, thereby it reflects the trust to lower levels in business while at the same time it increases their creativity and work motivation. Since nautical tourism is still in its nascent, the introduction of new scientific methods in decision-making could improve ports’ business and give them new directions and alternative directions of perceiving business challenges. The research paper also compares done research with previous similar surveys, but not to those that are directly related nautical tourism ports, all in order to identify changes that have occurred in management functioning over the years.