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Article:
The Rise and Rise of Croatia for Sailing Holidays by: Christopher Longmore In the 1980s, Croatia - then part of Yugoslavia - built up a sizeable yacht charter industry. It was never then on the scale to rival long time favourite Greece, but it was large enough to get itself noticed as an attractive coming destination. Then came the various Balkan wars - one of them involving Croatia itself - and the disintegration of old Yugoslavia. Croatia is now the ex-Yugoslav republic with almost all the coast line! Since the wars ended the growth of the croatian yacht charter (see http://www.gyc-croatia.com) industry has been little short of astonishing. In an industry notoriously short of credible statistics, we suspect that Croatia must now be a serious rival to Greece. There are a number of expalanations for this remarkable success: The country is naturally blessed with sailing waters as good and varied as anywhere in the world. After the war, the Croatian government went out of its way to encourage and indeed subsidise the re-building and building of the necessary infrastructure - most obviously the marinas. Northern Croatia is a 4 hour drive from most of Austria, and southern parts of Germany. Even Dalmatia, where perhaps the best sailing is to be found - is only 6 hours away. This was always a big advantage, but in the wake of 9/'11
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