Researching the impact of the recession on luxury goods is fundamental objective of this paper. Luxury goods, beside regular function, are also satisfying certain psychological needs of the individual (eg, self-actualization) and luxury is generally associated with symbolic, prestige and perception of differences. Recessions are a reality of modern national economies and globalized international economy. These are periods of economic downturn, which has an influence on many characteristics of human communities. The paper describes the market of luxury goods in the world with special focus on the Croatian market. Human needs are observed and associated with luxury. Characteristics of the recession are emphasized as well as changing of consumer behavior in this period. Empirical research was conducted, which covered a period of eleven years focused on the compliance of variation of gross domestic product and sales of luxury boats in order to show the practical example of the influence of the recession on the sale of luxury goods - luxury speed boats in Croatia. The conclusion is that the recession really affects the sale of luxury goods - in this case, luxury speedboats in Croatia. If the recession is operationalized through the gross national product and put into relation with the sale of luxury goods, then the direction of that connection is positive, when GDP is growing, sales of luxury motor boats is also growing and vice versa. The connection is very strong, and the correlation coefficient is 0.893 (for the whole period), and 0,951 in the case of focusing on the period of recession. It can be conclude that the recession has a significant impact on the sale of luxury boats in Croatia, and variation of this phenomenon is such that in times of recession sales of luxury speedboat is falling.