Film has yet to make an impact – hoteliers

But the effect from the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society film has not yet filtered down to the tourist sector, they reported.

In announcing another £215,000 investment in marketing on the back of the film, Visit Guernsey said there has been a increase in staying visitor numbers in April and May of 3% and 14% respectively.

Bella Luce director Luke Wheadon said the season had started slowly, but had picked up.

‘It’s going really well,’ he said.

‘It was a slow start. It can be quite hard to gauge as we are not mid-season yet. The first quarter was poor, but in June it has certainly improved.’

He said the nationality of travellers had remained at about 70% British and 20% French, German and Dutch.

‘There has been a little bit of talk about the Guernsey film, but I don’t think we’ve seen an impact yet,’ he said.

‘But I think we will over a period of time. It won’t happen this year, but maybe more next year. It will increase recognition around the name of Guernsey.’

Le Friquet Country Hotel general manager James Speers said it was hard to gauge how the season was going.

‘It’s been going well so far,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen a rise compared with last year. But it is hard to know how next month will do, as we get a lot of late bookings.’

Airlines are offering weekly services to Dusseldorf and Mr Speers said they had seen a rise in German visitors. Overall, he felt Visit Guernsey’s advertising campaign was having an impact on bringing in visitors. But he did not think the Guernsey film was drawing in extra tourists. He was concerned that the costs and unpredictability of local travel services was putting potential visitors off.

At Les Douvres, operations director Charlie Walker said they had had a very strong season so far.

‘It’s the best start of the season we have ever had,’ she said.

‘We’ve been full since the end of April and we have been going record-breaking numbers. We’ve got bookings for the next two or three months. We hope it will continue.’

She said they had seen a lot of return customers, which had helped boost numbers, but she was not sure what had led to such a big rise. ‘We don’t think it is from the Guernsey film – we think that will come in the next six to 12 months,’ she said.

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will be shown at this year’s Sure Big Screen in July. The film, which stars Lily James and Michiel Huisman, is due to come out on DVD in late August. The big screen event will run from Friday 20 to Monday 23 July at Cobo with a featured theme each day: musicals, heroes and villains, books and, for the first time, a people’s choice.