Tourism spend is cut as more given for film promotion
THE FORMER Economic Development Committee cut money from the tourism marketing budget to make savings at the same time as it was being given extra cash to promote the island to visitors on the back of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film.
New committee president Charles Parkinson has said in a written response to a series of questions by Deputy Chris Green about marketing around the film that the result was that VisitGuernsey ‘would only receive in reality, a net additional budget of £172,000 to execute their plans’.
A spokesman has since moved to ‘clarify’ that all the £330,000 it was granted as a one-off for the film has been spent for this purpose.
The marketing and tourism budget for 2018 was set originally at £2.55m., down only slightly on 2017.
‘For clarity, the previous Committee for Economic Development reduced the overall budget for all of VisitGuernsey’s ongoing planned activity in 2018 by £120,000, and it also put forward the business case for an additional funding allocation to market the island in line with the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film,’ a committee spokesman said.
‘This is because during the budget process the one-off opportunity presented by the film became apparent.
‘The Future Guernsey Economic Fund is to be used for special projects or initiatives which bring a return on investment.
‘It was felt by the CfED and the Policy & Resources Committee that the marketing of the film was such a project, with the planned return on investment being increased visitor numbers.’
Economic Development initially bid in early June for an extra £550,000 for the promotion campaign, but P&R granted it less with conditions that no money could be used until the release date was confirmed publicly and the funds would only be released once the reaction to the film was known.
‘The funding from the Future Guernsey Economic Fund was not used to offset any reduction in the VisitGuernsey budget,’ the spokesman said.
‘The marketing of the film was an additional work stream that needed additional funding, and all of the funding from the Future Guernsey Economic Fund for the marketing of the film will be spent on that.
‘Of the £330,000, £292,000 has been spent or committed on marketing based around the cinema release and the DVD release.
‘The additional £38,000 was used by Education, Sport & Culture to pay for the Guernsey premiere.’
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