There’s something very appealing about the archetypal family business. Croatia’s Katarina Line is a real family business, with a bio that is an inspiring success story.
The mom, Katica Hauptfeld, is the founder and chief. The son Daniel is director of marketing. The daughter Anamaria is director of the cruise division. Daniel’s wife helps with marketing and Anamaria’s husband helps with other projects. And, as with any family business, they all pitch in together to do whatever is required to propel the business.
And the formula is working. The company is now enjoying a meteoric rise in the North American travel industry.
Everything Croatia
Katarina Line is known primarily as a specialty cruise operator that offers a particularly Croatian style of cruises throughout Croatia’s 1200 islands. But beyond that, it’s an all-around destination management company for Croatia, a home-based provider of everything needed to tour Croatia.
Because Croatia is such a sea-based country, cruises are a huge part of what the company offers for people who want to explore Croatia.
Today 60 percent of Katarina’s business is cruise business, even though it has four times as many clients on land as on sea.
Before COVID, the company operated 63 ships. Now it’s about 45. But Katarina is now on a growth curve.
The company has three headquarters: at the port cities of Opatija, Split and Dubrovnik. The three bases of operations are located strategically at points at the top, bottom and middle of Croatia’s Adriatic coastline.
For many American travel agents and tour operators Katarina Line serves as the one-stop DMC for Croatia. It’s the on-location partner for the Travelsavers consortium, and other travel advisor groups as well. It’s also a longtime member of ASTA, the US Tour Operators Association and the National Tour Association.
Katarina keeps up a diligent presence at all the major travel shows internationally. The family members are all constantly in transit around the world. And its business from the US is growing by leaps and bounds. According to Daniel Hauptfeld, the company’s marketing director and the son of the founder, the company’s US business is not only growing year over year, it’s growing every month.
By the Sea
Croatia is one of those enviable countries that, like Portugal and Chile, or California, has somehow managed historically to slice off virtually the whole coastline of a particular region for itself. Croatia possesses most of the eastern shoreline of the Adriatic Sea across that narrow sea from Italy and north of Greece. In such a location, it could not fail to be a place of enormous cultural richness and natural beauty.
Katarina on the Half Shell
The story of Katarina Line goes back to when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, that country that was formed in 1918 after The Great War by combining territories that had previously fallen under the Ottoman Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Croatia was joined with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Serbia, including the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina.
In the post World War II world, Yugoslavia was a communist country aligned with the Soviet Union. As the Soviet bloc collapsed in the early 1990s, Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia.
Under communism, Katica Hauptfeld had worked for 17 years for Kvarner Express, a government-operated travel agency and tour operator. After Croatia became independent, she was free to use her extensive experience to start her own business. In 1992, as the Bosnian War was raging, she founded Katarina Line. The business was named with a variation of the founder’s name.
To grow Katarina Line, Katica Hauptfeld built on relationships she had established during her tenure at Kvarner Express, most notably with Sweden’s Stena Line, which sent many travelers to Croatia, as well as with various retail travel agencies around the world.
Katica sent her son and daughter to the US for their education, then brought them back into the business. They all pitch in on attendance to travel industry events, anything to get the word out about Katarina Line.
Wooden Ships on the Water
Katarina Line’s cruise business started with traditional wooden ships that looked like historical pirate ships. They had been previously used for dredging up sand from the sea bottom to sell for construction and other purposes. That business had dried up as the government restricted the digging of sand from the ocean, and other sources of sand emerged.
At first the ships had no cabins, so they were deployed for one-day fishing excursions.
Then someone got the idea to offer excursions of more than one day, which required developing the ships by adding cabins and restrooms. The business grew from there.
After a few years, the business had developed to the point where it could support better ships that had showers and toilets in every cabin.
“In 2002 we built the first steel hull boats that looked like the original wooden boats but had air conditioning,” said Daniel.
They still had masts and sails, but they also had motors, and by that time the masts were mostly ornamental. Then over time, as the number of cabins increased, the masts were fazed out. The wooden pirate ships were replaced by ships with metal hulls that are fashioned like yachts.
Katarina-Style Cruising
The Katarina style of cruising involves sailing from island to island, with two swimming stops a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The ships stop each evening in a different port to spend it enjoying the town, with no overnight sailing.
The company also offers cycling cruises, which offer cycling at each stop. The ship will sail around the island to pick up cyclers after they have ridden a good distance across.
Katarina characterizes its product as “affordable”.
“The highest price for our cruises in Croatia is about $3,200 per person per week, including everything,” said Daniel. “Look for a river cruise under $5,000. You won’t find one, unless it’s a special offer.”
The Family Business
Today Katicia Hauptfeld, the original Katarina, is still at the helm, still highly active with the company, traipsing around the world to promote Katarina Line at every opportunity. Daniel and Anamaria are doing the same, and all are integral to the operation of the business. A company that started as a one-woman business 31 years ago, now has 54 employees.
Katarina’s Hotel
In news announced last May, Katarina is leaping up to another level of business. The tour operator is going to have its own hotel, in its home city of Opatija. It will be a Hilton Curio hotel and it’s being built from scratch. It’s one of 135 Hilton Curio properties in the world.
The hotel will be called K8, a pun for “Kate,” incorporating Katica’s lucky number 8, and, the symbol for infinity turned 90 degrees.
“It’s not typical Hilton,” said Daniel. “We have our own taste of design. The Curio brand is all about curiosity. It’s the owner’s perception of how hotel fits into that concept. It tells a story about our hotel, our area.”
Site Upgrade
The company is now in the process of revamping its website. It will give travel advisors more information about availability than what is shown to the public.
“The upgrade will make more difference between how agents and consumers use the site,” said Daniel. “If it says ‘sold out,’ agents can email us and see if we have availability.”
So, there it is. If you want to visit Croatia, or know anyone who does, you know how.
David Cogswell is a freelance writer working remotely, from wherever he is at the moment. Born at the dead center of the United States during the last century, he has been incessantly moving and exploring for decades. His articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Fox News, Luxury Travel Magazine, Travel Weekly, Travel Market Report, Travel Agent Magazine, TravelPulse.com, Quirkycruise.com, and other publications. He is the author of four books and a contributor to several others. He was last seen somewhere in the Northeast US.
