Nautical tourism plays a vital role in the overall tourism share of the Republic of Croatia and, according to Kovačić and Luković (2007), it is also economically significant for other countries worldwide. Nautical tourism is a relatively young business activity imbued with the characteristics of both tourism and maritime affairs (Kovačić et al., 2006). It cannot function without ports where tourists dock with their own vessels or larger ships (Gračan et al., 2016). This paper highlights the importance of nautical ports and the development of port infrastructure for nautical tourism in the Republic of Croatia. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the number of nautical ports and the number of vessels at permanent berths and in transit, in order to assess the extent to which infrastructural development keeps pace with actual port utilization. The analyzed data were collected from the database of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Research methodology in this paper is divided into two parts. The first part consists of desk research involving the analysis of available literature related to the research topic, as well as collected data on the total number of nautical tourism ports, the total number of vessels at permanent berths, and the total number of vessels in transit in Croatian nautical tourism. Additionally, three research hypotheses were established: H1: There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of nautical ports and the total number of vessels at permanent berths in nautical tourism in the Republic of Croatia. H2:There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of nautical ports and the total number of vessels in transit in nautical tourism in the Republic of Croatia. H3:There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of vessels at permanent berths and the total number of vessels in transit in nautical tourism in the Republic of Croatia. The second part of the research involves the calculation and presentation of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis between the observed variables. The Jamovi software package (Version 2.3) was used for these calculations. Due to the small sample size (N=20 annual values), Spearman’s correlation coefficient was applied according to Rozga (2013), a method previously utilized in maritime research by Poljičak et al. (2022). The first hypothesis (H1), stating that "there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of nautical ports and the total number of vessels at permanent berths," was not statistically confirmed, although a positive trend was observed. The correlation result of Spearman’s rho = 0.406 represents a moderately high positive correlation, but it is not statistically significant due to the p-value (p=0.076). The second hypothesis (H2), stating that "there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of nautical ports and the total number of vessels in transit," was also not statistically confirmed. The correlation coefficient of Spearman’s rho = 0.124 represents a very weak and low positive correlation, and the high p-value (p=0.603) indicates it is not statistically significant. The third hypothesis (H3), stating that "there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the total number of vessels at permanent berths and the total number of vessels in transit," was fully confirmed. The correlation coefficient of Spearman’s rho = 0.531 represents a moderately high level of correlation, and the p-value is below the threshold of p < 0.05, indicating statistical significance. The research results suggest that the increase in the number of nautical ports during the observed period was not significantly associated with an increase in the number of vessels at permanent berths or vessels in transit in Croatia. Furthermore, this study suggests that a higher number of vessels with permanent berths implies a potential increase in the number of nautical vessels in transit. Future research could include the analysis and classification of ports by type, size, capacity, and seasonality, as well as the application of more advanced time-series analysis methods. The contribution of this research lies in its long-term analysis, which points to a possible discrepancy between the growth of nautical infrastructure and the actual utilization of ports in the Republic of Croatia.
Vučetić et al. (Mon,) studied this question.