The figures for this summer revealed a modest 4% rise in staying visitors, which translated to an extra 18,600 bed nights compared to the same period last year.
Healthy signs of recovery have been shown following advertising campaigns which have marketed the island as an outdoor lover’s haven with a range of activities such as coastal walks, cycling, kayaking, and surfing.
In particular, there has been a big surge in visitors from France, numbers have almost doubled following the refurbishment of Victor Hugo’s Hauteville House.
Since 2015, the tourism figures are continuing the slight trend upwards, set against a 30-year backdrop of decline.
Announcing the summer statistics, Mike Hopkins, the director of marketing and tourism, was in a upbeat mood.
‘Overall we’re pretty happy and positive about the numbers, because the value driving part of the market are the staying visitors and those numbers have maintained the steady increase that we’ve seen over the last four to five years after 30 years of decline.
‘Any long-term decline can’t be turned around overnight, and we’re now starting to see the early signs of reversing the old trend and these increases are positive, and we want to keep on that trajectory.’
The target market of Visit Guernsey is a high-end, older demographic of people who are referred to as ‘less price sensitive’. They like to take a lot of holidays and they spend a lot on food and activities.
During the peak season families are also targeted, and these are families who do not want to just sit by a pool in a resort, they want to get outdoors and make the most of nature and wildlife.
Seventy per cent of the volume of visitors come from the UK, 10% are from France and Jersey, and the rest are from other jurisdictions such as Germany and the Netherlands.
A key part of selling Guernsey is marketing it as an archipelago of five very different islands, and Mr Hopkins said visitors loved this unique aspect.
‘Guernsey is the hub of the islands and whether it’s walking, cycling, or enjoying the heritage offering, the cultural offering, or the food and drink offering, it’s in completely different environments within the islands.
‘So that’s what we’re promoting heavily and we’ll be doing more of that next year, there’ll be a lot of focus on the island-hopping experience.’
Cruise ship passenger numbers fell by 22% during the peak tourist months this year, with 14,000 fewer cruise visitors disembarking in Guernsey.
This was put down to the weather because, of the 42 cruise ships scheduled to call in at Guernsey during the three months ending in September, seven were cancelled because of rough conditions.
The cruise ships can easily skew the figures because of the huge volumes, but excluding cruise and yachtsmen and women there were an additional 4,482 visitors during the last quarter.
In the year to date, from January to September, total visitors remained static compared to last year at 237,244.
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