Relevance of the Usual Environment Concept in Nautical Tourism Monitoring

The concept of the usual environment is a crucial determinant for identifying tourism activities from the demand perspective but its operational use creates numerous challenges in the assessment of the physical and monetary size of tourism. The concept of the usual environment is especially challenging in the context of nautical tourism, particularly in the segment of domestic same-day visitors. Using the example of Croatia, a country in which yachting accounts for a significant part of total tourism physical flows, the paper attempts to fill the research gap by looking at the criteria for assessing domestic nautical same-day trips from a demand perspective. Qualitative research on the population of residents who are recreational boat owners was conducted. The aim of the research was to assess residents’ perception of the usual environment when on a same-day boat trip from the criteria of trip frequency, distance, motives and activities. Data was collected by in-depth interviews with 17 respondents. Analysis indicated that domestic same-day boat trips tend to be underestimated, resulting in recommendations for more precise treatment of nautical tourism in tourism statistics.