Croatia leads the Mediterranean at 88% peak occupancy. Greece at 82%. Spain at 78%. Here's the complete country-by-country breakdown with verified data.
Charter occupancy rates are the single most important metric for investment return modeling — and the hardest to verify independently. This benchmark report combines live calendar scraping across six platforms with Wayback Machine CDX analysis of 24 months of historical data to produce the most current verified occupancy figures available.
Our scrapers check booking availability across Boatsetter, Sailo, Nautal, GetMyBoat, Click&Boat, and platform-direct listings daily. Each scrape captures the calendar state for every tracked vessel: booked dates, available dates, and blocked dates. Wayback Machine snapshots extend this history back 24 months at 3–14 day intervals, depending on archive frequency for each URL.
Verified annual and peak-season occupancy by country — catamarans 40–52ft
| Country | Annual Occupancy | Peak Season (Jun–Sep) | Shoulder Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croatia | 61% | 88% | 34% |
| Greece | 57% | 82% | 29% |
| Spain (Balearics) | 53% | 78% | 27% |
| Italy (Sardinia/Sicily) | 49% | 74% | 23% |
| Turkey (Aegean) | 47% | 71% | 22% |
| France (Côte d'Azur) | 44% | 68% | 21% |
| BVI | 55% | 76% | 39% |
| Florida Keys | 48% | 62% | 35% |
Croatia's consistent top position in our data reflects structural advantages: a coastline with 1,244 islands generating natural demand across multiple departure points (Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar, Trogir), a developed charter infrastructure with 50+ marinas, and a proven high-season demand from the Northern European markets that book 6–9 months in advance. Our 2026 data shows Croatian peak-season slots (4-week blocks in July–August) booking out by February for the top-performing fleets.
The British Virgin Islands achieve 55% annual occupancy — higher than Turkey and France — because of strong shoulder-season demand (39% vs. 22–34% for Mediterranean competitors). The BVI charter season runs November through May, which is the inverse of the Mediterranean, meaning cross-market fleet positioning between regions is increasingly common among larger operators.
Every Mediterranean market shows the same cliff: June–September drives 65–70% of annual revenue in 4 calendar months. Annual yield models built on peak-season data dramatically overstate performance. The practical implication for investors: a vessel that appears 80% occupied in charter marketing materials may be reporting peak-season data only. Our annual occupancy figures account for 12 full calendar months, including November–March shoulder and off-season.
Investor insight
Peak-season occupancy in Croatia reaches 88%. But vessels are available 52 weeks per year. Annual verified occupancy (all 52 weeks) averages 61% — 27 percentage points lower than the peak number often cited in marketing.
Occupancy figures vary by platform. Boatsetter-listed vessels in Greece show a median of 62% annual occupancy; the same vessels on Sailo show 54%. The difference: Boatsetter's algorithm surfaces highly-reviewed listings more aggressively, creating a platform bias toward higher-performing vessels. Platform-specific data should always be compared cross-platform before being used for investment decisions.