'Tourism in critical and fragile state'
THE tourism industry is in a critical and fragile state because of damage caused by travel disruption, a leading industry official has warned.
After a fortnight of frequent problems for sea and air passengers, not just caused by poor weather, but also technical and operational issues, Chamber of Commerce hospitality and tourism sub-group head Luke Wheadon said travel links were unacceptable as recent poor tourism statistics showed.
He is one of many industry officials to raise serious concerns about travel services.
With weeks of disruption affecting the inter-island air route, Confederation of Guernsey Industry chairman Larry Granger has also labelled the situation as critical and hoteliers have called for Aurigny to re-start flying between Guernsey and Jersey.
Economic Development president Peter Ferbrache has acknowledged companies operating the island's air and sea routes have to do better and said his department was arranging various meetings with stakeholders.
Mr Wheadon said links were the worst he had ever known.
'If you look at the tourism statistics, it is representative of a situation which is critical,' he said.
'Our links to Jersey are unacceptable, our sea links are unacceptable and our air links are OK, but could they be better? Yes.
'At the moment the situation we are in is completely unacceptable and it's a critical situation.'