Five national parks, three nature parks, multiple historical sites, picturesque villages, coastal attractions, and easy access to unspoiled islands in the Adriatic Sea – it’s easy to see why Croatia’s 3,000-year-old city of Zadar has grown in popularity with cruise visitors over the past few years. In 2015, Zadar welcomed just 74,000 cruise passengers. By 2016, this had soared by more than 90% to hit 136,000 and in 2017, it jumped again to reach 138,000. This year, the port is scheduled to handle around 165,000 cruise guests during 145 ship calls.
Robert Škifić, general manager at the Port of Zadar Authority, attributes the rapid rise to the construction of a dedicated passenger port in Gaženica, which opened in April 2015.
“Ten years ago, we started to welcome cruise ships at Zadar’s old port in the city centre, but this small pier was only a temporary solution,” he explains. “In 2009, we started to build the new port in Gaženica and, when it opened, relocated all cruise and ferry activities there. The port is directly connected to the highway and it’s located just three kilometres from the city centre and five kilometres from the airport.”
Now that both locals and international visitors can easily reach Gaženica port to embark on domestic ferries or cruise ships, Zadar is enhancing its reputation as an ideal cruise destination for starting or ending Adriatic and Mediterranean itineraries. The fact that the port has five berths for international cruise ships and seven for domestic ferries also helps.
“The main advantage of the new port is that there’s now no limit on the size of cruise ships that can berth here,” says Škifić. “Since we started operations at the port of Gaženica, the number of locals using the ferry services has risen and we transport more than 400,000 vehicles and their passengers annually. When the passenger figures for the domestic ferry services are combined with those for cruise guests, we welcome a total of more than 2.5 million people per year.”
Buoyed by the cruise growth at Gaženica, the port authority will open a new passenger terminal building at the port this year. Strabag, one of Europe’s biggest construction companies, started building work in September 2016 and is expected to complete the building phase this spring. The facility will be able to handle both local and international passenger ferry and ro-ro traffic, as well as homeporting, day call and turnaround operations from cruise ships.
Last November, Zadar Port Authority opened a tender process to find a company to manage, operate and maintain the terminal service and infrastructure for a 20-year period.
“The tender closed in February 2018 and although we’ve not yet chosen the successful applicant, we’re very happy with the interested parties,” says Škifić. “The new terminal building will help us to improve passenger services and provide more crew-friendly services, so we anticipate that Zadar will continue to see more growth in the future. We also expect local stakeholders will be increasingly interested in building commercial and hospitality venues, a congress centre and hotels near the port.”