Draft consultant report backs a longer runway

After giving his update on the work of the committee, he fielded a question from Deputy Peter Roffey, who asked if the committee had formed an opinion on the need for a runway extension and what that was.

Deputy Parkinson said that it was still waiting for PwC to publish its final recommendations.

‘We have seen drafts of what they are intending to propose and I think at this stage it would be fair to say that while those drafts in general seem to be supportive of a runway extension, there is not the necessary clarity about what kind of runway extension – essentially, how long it needs to be.’

Earlier in his update he said that the tourism sector had shown progress in the second quarter of the year, with an increase of 5% of bed nights in paid-for commercial accommodation compared to 2017, or 13,000 additional bed nights.

Visitor numbers were up by 2% – 89,434 over the same period the year before. This excluded visiting yachtsmen and cruise passengers.

Adding in these figures, total numbers were up 1.4% for quarter two – 148,614, compared to 146,617.

At the same time, staying business visitors rose by 26% and business day visits remained stable. There was a 7% increase in leisure day visits.

Deputy Parkinson went on to mention the work of Locate Guernsey, which in the first half of the year had generated recurring revenue to the island of almost £1.5m., measured on tax revenue and document duty, which he said was almost as much in six months as the previous two years combined.

A ‘red tape’ review is due to begin in November, he said, and this would report back to the Assembly in the first quarter of next year.

Efforts were also due to be made to make more of the ‘significant footprint’ in the island of Victor Hugo, and Deputy Parkinson said he was due to meet a representative of the Mayor of Paris next week to discuss how the city and the island could work together on this.

‘This is not just about evolving our tourism offer, it is about how we evolve our island’s brand,’ he said.

To help reposition this brand, the department was in the early stages of talks with a number of potential overseas partners on the development of an international university presence in the island.

‘There is clearly of interest in what Guernsey can offer, and we are hopeful at making further progress during the course of this year.’

He concluded by saying that policy statements would be forthcoming later this year or early 2019 on medtech and medical tourism, renewable energy and the blue economy and also a policy framework for the finance sector.

A skills action plan has been developed with Skills Guernsey, and this would appear in the next month.

He concluded by saying that a new retail strategy was in development with the Chamber of Commerce and its retail members.