Travel stats are unclear for tourism
JUST last week, Guernsey’s tourism industry appeared to be making a decent effort of tearing itself apart. If that is any closer to resolution, or reaching any kind of rapprochement, we don’t yet know.
Today we publish travel statistics which do indicate a post-Covid recovery for the island, for travel, and potentially for tourism – but perhaps not one to the levels that might have been hoped for.
Of course the passenger movements prove that there was a recovery of sorts in 2022 – to not have seen such would have been acutely disappointing – but it’s not the post-Covid boom we might have been expecting, with people desperate to get away, but keener to stay close to home.
So just like you can’t judge anything from the Covid years, arguably you can’t make too much capital from the figures for 2022 – they don’t tell us anything that we didn’t already expect, and give us no chance to extrapolate trends.
One reason for hope is the continued investment, the best available demonstration of confidence, being made by many in the hospitality sector.
And it is not too late to secure a successful summer season for tourism in 2023 – however that might be achieved, whether by individual operators and establishments, or as an industry together – but the clock is ticking.