Maritime tourism in the Adriatic Sea

May 17, 2016 - Since 2013 Adriatic Sea Tourism Report provides an annual document dedicated to the analysis and description of maritime tourism and passengers traffic in the Adriatic Sea. At its 4th edition Adriatic Sea Tourism Report is a reliable tool to be informed and to deepen quantitative and qualitative info about cruise, ferry, sailing and yachting tourism in the Adriatic Sea. Again in 2016 this report is the result of an extensive dialogue carried out by Risposte Turismo with many Adriatic stakeholders – among them ports and marinas (individual and networks), passenger terminals, charter operators, tourism companies and national institutes of statistics – we would like to thank for their collaboration. It is also the result of a continuous effort in terms of analysis, studies, search of info and data about traffics, investments, priorities, strategies and plans related to the dynamics of the monitored sectors in the Adriatic area and not only. As for the previous editions, the 2016 report contains, together with this introduction, three chapters each of them focused on cruise, ferry, and sailing and yachting, to close with a final chapter that tries to summarize and highlight few strategic elements to better understand and frame the all Adriatic area as a unique one for the entire maritime tourism sector. The document is mainly made up of an examination of the movements of tourists by sea, recording flows, dimensions, directions and behaviours in tables, graphs and maps. For the fourth year in a row a double ad-hoc survey, addressed to marinas and charter companies, realised in the first months of 2016, completes the statistical data highlighting information related to demand and supply of nautical tourism in the area with a transnational perspective, an element that characterises the Adriatic Sea Tourism Report series. The Adriatic is an international space that still requires a considerable amount of work in order to be fully recognised as a destination with its own image, position and character. Studies and analysis like this may give a contribution but a stronger commitment both from public and private operators is needed. The summary of data that follows below should be sufficient to give an idea of the unequivocal relevance that the Adriatic assumes in international geography and maritime tourism, but the overall results still do not appear aligned with the potentialities.