Nautical tourism represents a perspective form of tourist offer that records a positive trend from year to year. For the development of nautical tourism in the function of sustainable development of the Republic of Croatia, it is of utmost importance to devise the inclusion of tourist places and nautical ports in the trends of modern development and, at the same time, strive for a compatible, complex and extremely important and sustainable development. Nautical tourism and the development of destinations are found in a kind of symbiosis; there by nautical tourism follows the development of the destination, significantly contributing to the development and high quality of services needed to meet the needs of consumers. It is concluded that, in fact, the sustainable use and management of resources along with the development of the destination represents the fundamental goal of nautical tourism for the purpose of its development. Nautical tourism and sustainable development of the Republic of Croatia represent a kind of reciprocal process that requires systematic work, active action and responsibility to result in the overall development of nautical tourism and, in parallel with this, the development of the Republic of Croatia.