In Memorium: Kompas Holidays President Predrag Krivokapic

Predgrag Krivokapic, the longtime president of Kompas Holidays International, passed away on Christmas Eve, 2018 while in Croatia.

Krivokapic is credited with being among the very first to introduce European river cruises in the 1990s with small ship cruises through Croatia in the early 2000s, many of which now accompany the company’s array of Central and Eastern European escorted and independent land programs.

Born in Montenegro in 1949, Krivokapic began his tourism career in 1968, where he worked with Atlas Budva in his native Montenegro as a reservation agent, operation manager and manager until 1979, when he joined Kompas as a Regional Director for Kompas in Istria, Croatia.

Krivokapic weathered the shifts from a closed Eastern Europe behind an Iron Curtain to a market economy in which his ideas and his company flourished. Kompas Europe had been a major land operator during the Cold War and thus was best equipped with expert guides, solid itineraries and inside knowledge of Central and Eastern Europe. Once the countries shifted to a market economy, Krivokapic rode the wave with acumen and vision.

Krivokapic began his tourism career in 1968, where he worked with Atlas Budva in his native Montenegro as a reservation agent, operation manager and Manager until 1979, when he joined Kompas as a Regional Director for Kompas in Istria, Croatia.

As early as the late 1980s, Kompas counted more than 4,000 employees, 150 tourist coaches, 2,250 cars, 11 large passenger boats, 10 smaller tourist crafts, 90 Janneau yachts, two ski centers, and more than 30 restaurants thus becoming one of the largest tourist agencies in the world. Thus positioning this one-time dominant land operator in at the bridge of great interest in the countries that were now new to the American market. By 1985, he moved to the KOMPAS USA office originally based in New York City, where he remained until 1989 as the director.

Riding even more turbulent change, following the break-up of Yugoslavia and shift to market economy in 1991, Kompas began to create a new, better and far more international tourism story and as the key figure and advisor in the consolidation of the company, Krivokapic played a major role. Kompas began to create a new, and far more international tourism story: By 1993, Kompas set up an office in Fort Lauderdale that Krivokapic ultimately joined and remained as President until his death.

His colleagues knew him for his good luck because, in the not-so-recent past, Krivokapic had gone through odd circumstances, including missing boarding two planes that ultimately crashed so when he became ill and got pneumonia on a business trip to Russia, nobody imagined that would be his last trip.

He leaves behind his wife Pauline, son Stefan and his wife Monica; daughter Angelina and her husband Gavin and their children Ethan and Sienna and his sister Ruzica.