Tourism takes its place at back of line

It was May 2015 when a 10-year strategic plan dropped pledging to increase the number of visitors by 30% to 400,000 within 10 years to generate an extra £32.8m. for the economy.

This had been launched on the back of an uptick in visitor numbers of 2.5% the previous year, so when the director of tourism said ‘we needed the plan to be sustainable and I think it is’ he maybe thought this was little more than business as usual plus a little magic dust.

He also said that replacing two ships with the Condor Liberation was a ‘good thing’.

So here we are, five years later, and Condor is getting the blame for ruining the day trip numbers, total visitor numbers have fallen, and a new plan has been launched with scaled-back targets – none of which is now financial.

There are echoes of what was going to succeed last time – the loudest of which is the runway extension and new air links to Europe. Condor is now facing the threat of a new operator being lined up should it not come up with the goods.

The original Tourism Strategy was never approved by the States, never tested and moulded by debate and public discourse.

An evaluation of the progress made cites the launch of new air routes including those, such as Heathrow and Liverpool, which have been scrapped.

Progress indeed.

The scaling back of the ambition contained in the new 10-point plan to cover the next five years is understandable without any significant ‘game changer’ initiatives.

For Economic Development, all roads lead to a longer runway, but that stance faces strong and significant opposition.

There are glimmers of hope, but they are just that, glimmers.

The high value staying leisure visitors number has risen from 2014, but fell between 2017 and 2018 and is nowhere near those seen before.

The 10-point plan lacks the confidence and ambition of the strategy that went before. As such, it is a reflection of where our tourism sector now stands in government’s priorities.