Hospitality trade hopeful for tourism prospects in 2025

Moores, Hotel de Havelet and Les Rocquettes hotels are all part of Sarnia Hotels.

Managing director Karel Harris said she remained positive, despite last year’s tourism figures, which was published this week.

‘Last year’s figures were slightly down but the main season was still pretty good,’ she said.

‘This year is looking strong, especially over May and June with the 80th Liberation Day celebrations drawing many visitors to the island.’

She said that many of the guests booking at Sarnia Hotels were repeat customers.

‘It’s wonderful to see a new generation of customers coming back, many of whom are exploring places on their doorstep with the same currency and language.’ she said.

‘I don’t worry ever that there isn’t enough to do here. We are not chasing mass tourism and should celebrate the fact that we are a niche holiday destination.’

However, she acknowledged the island’s image had been hit by travel issues.

‘On top of the cost of the services, the general lack of reliability has discouraged trade,’ she said.

‘Many guests cannot afford the extra holiday time that travel delays demand.’

Will Haegeland, general manager at Pandora Hotel and Marton Guest House, highlighted that the length of stay has increased slightly.

‘We have a good volume of reservations on books, but as many of these are travel agent allocations, it is still to be seen if the room bookings will be picked up – i.e. the agents able to sell the number of rooms that they hold at our two properties,’ he said.

‘Most are on 60-30 days release, so till that time we will not know if they have been able to sell the volume expected.’

He said that one issue with pre-bookings this year has been the delay in announcing air and ferry schedules.

‘We are not only impacted by the Guernsey schedule, but also the lateness of the Jersey schedule, as many visitors are doing “island-hopping” tours and need to know if they can get from one island to the other within their travel period.

‘This has had impact on individual bookings, as have the reliability issues regarding air travel.’

Tourism Management Board chairwoman Hannah Beacom is also managing director of Island Coachways and said her own business was really happy with forward bookings and because of the sort of business it was, that could be an indicator for wider tourism on the whole.

‘We are looking very busy in May and not just Liberation week,’ she said.

‘What we are seeing is a significant increase in bookings coming via the French route.’

She added that Visit Guernsey had put a lot of focus into advertising and promotion in France.

‘They had been working hard with both Condor and Aurigny to boost that.

‘But obviously with France, now you’ve got a much bigger marketing database from Brittany Ferries.

‘And I think we really are seeing the impact of that.’

But she admitted that her company was also waiting to know the true level of connectivity with Jersey would be this summer.

‘That is big numbers for many in the sector, ourselves included, whether it be day-trippers or short breaks or inter-island holidays coming from Jersey.

‘That’s the last piece of the puzzle.’