The Committee for Economic Development said a total of £1,785.03 was spent at the fine dining restaurant at Chouet over the course of last year on three separate visits.
The figure was revealed in a freedom of information request.
The money came out of Visit Guernsey’s marketing budget, which is just less than £2m. a year.
‘We’re always happy to answer FOIs because we work in a very transparent way,’ said lead marketing officer Zoe Gosling.
‘But the answer does not show the whole picture and there’s an inevitability that the response isn’t going to be one we would like.
‘We take spending our modest budget very seriously and the narrative that we chuck money at things without any thought is frustrating.
‘There is good reason why we make each decision, and in this case it was because Vraic is a new product, and one that’s of real value to a visitor column.’
The sum was mainly spent on entertaining guests, as part of the committee’s tourism mandate, through the agency, to market and promote new tourism products.
No elected representatives were invited to any of the meals.
‘With any new product, we’re going to work with them to highlight it,’ said Ms Gosling.
‘Vraic opens us up to a slightly new audience – one looking for food destinations – which was timely for us, as we’re looking to develop on Guernsey’s amazing food offering.’
One of the contributing meals was for a group press trip as part of Visit Guernsey’s visiting journalists programme, one was for an online ‘influencer’, and one was a lunch with key stakeholders.
‘We work with a whole spectrum of journalists and influencers that are sourced for us from the UK, France and Jersey,’ said marketing manager Sam Claxton.
‘Those are our core markets. The balance of journalists versus influencers has started to become more even. In the world we live in now, people are glued to their phones.
‘So bringing influencers over gives us a really big return on investment. We’ll review what kind of product suits each person’s audiences and that will give us a really clear steer for what their itinerary should look like.’
The press meal included two journalists – Lauren Sheriff, from The Telegraph, who wrote an article on Guernsey following her visit, and Alastair David Luke, from the National World newspaper group, who is writing a dedicated feature on Vraic.
Influencer ‘littlemissnottinghill’, who has 22.5k Instagram followers, was also entertained.
‘The Telegraph and National World provide particularly significant reach,’ said Mr Claxton.
‘In this case, the audience aligns well with affluent interests in fine dining, travel, and luxury. So when you ask if sending them to Vraic was the right decision – the answer is absolutely.
‘The Telegraph readership is 23.5m. people. The ROI is absolutely huge. It would cost five figures to get coverage in The Telegraph.
‘So for us to spend £600 at Vraic shows how we make every pound work hard for us.’
The team said they also took into account tourism trade across the island and was conscious not to favour some more than others.
‘We take visiting press members everywhere – to places like kiosks and the Renoir Tea Garden, too.
‘We might have a journalist writing for someone like The Sun or The Mirror, where Vraic wouldn’t align with their audience, so their itinerary would look different. For each trip, we try and use a real balance, because there’s so much to see and do here, and we want them experience the best of the islands.’
But Mr Claxton said Visit Guernsey tended to allocate the majority of its budget each year on adverts and campaigns.
‘There’s flexibility, but the bulk of it usually is pure advertising – brand awareness of the island, and joint campaigns with carriers,’ he said.
‘We aim to make people aware of how great Guernsey is, and then make it easy for them to get here and make a booking.’