European Journal of Service Management

There are more and more people interested in nautical tourism in Poland the consequence of which is the growing demand for charter services. Their development is important for the Polish tourism economy, but, similarly to the other attractions related to sailing tourism, they are rarely the subject of scientific research. The main purpose of the article is to diagnose the basic problems faced by charterers operating in Poland. In addition, the aim was also to organize and enrich the available terminology relating to the operation of chartering companies in order to partially fill the existing gap in this area. The first part of this article presents the specificity of charter services, basic concepts related to charter activity and the classification of charterers’ companies. Additionally it shows a list of major companies along with the characteristics of the areas they operate in. The further part includes the diagnosis and discussion of the basic problems faced by these companies based on questionnaire survey conducted in May 2017 among experts – managers of charter companies. It was found that these problems result from the existing legislation, high competition, rising operating costs, poor infrastructure of yacht ports and the seasonality of nautical tourism. Therefore, these problems are difficult to be solved and can only be reduced by adopting a proper operating policy.