Strategy to attract visitors has no clear plan of action

SO GUERNSEY has been 'named' number one in a top 10 list of British islands.

And much to everyone's delight here, the Crapauds are nowhere in sight.

The list was another of those interminably boring products of travel coverage in the nationals, this time the Daily Telegraph.

They are all a bit of a marketing dream, really.

Because that's all it is, despite the impression some would like to give.

Check back on the same newspaper's top 10 for the year before and Guernsey does not feature, although Herm does.

What has changed in the last year to shoot us up into the top 10 and relegate the golden isle?

Go back to 2008 and the Telegraph ran a top 50 where we only scraped in at number 49, just ahead of No Man's Land off Portsmouth Harbour.

Locate Guernsey crowed on Twitter that Guernsey was 'voted' Britain's greatest island, happily ignoring the fact that there was no polling of anyone.

Policy & Resources president Gavin St Pier gave it the stamp of approval by re-tweeting Locate Guernsey's effort.

Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq tweeted 'Guernsey ranked Britain's best island' with a link to the list.

VisitGuernsey went with 'We are number 1!'.

People in Guernsey are rightly very proud of the island, but equally quick to run it down.

Ask someone and they may run off a list of positives, from the cliff walks to the beaches and the top-quality restaurants.

Get them in a bad mood and they will say there is too much congestion and it is all too expensive with too little to do.

The VisitGuernsey strategic plan wants a 30% growth in the tourist economy by 2025 – an increase in visitor numbers from 309,000 in 2014 to 400,000 by the end of 2025.

In 2015, it wanted 320,000 visitors, a £4m. boost to GDP. By 2025, the contribution to economic growth would be £32.8m.

Since that plan was published, visitor numbers have gone rapidly in the opposite direction, falling by around 5% in both 2015 and 2016 to now stand at 279,700.

Jersey saw growth in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

You just cannot help shake the notion that for all the nice words, the States is just paying lip service to the tourist economy and hoping it sorts itself out, because there has been no noticeable response to this collapse in numbers, just glossy marketing words.

Travel links are a part of the puzzle, of course, but not the only piece.

Economic Development has its focus on developing a longer runway and appears to be in deadlock with Condor, powerless to force any change.

But while it wants to spend big on the extension (the field of dreams 'if you build it they will come' play) it still wants to market Guernsey on the cheap.

As part of its strategy VisitGuernsey asked people why they had not visited.

The two main answers were that it is too expensive and people just were not interested because there is not much to do.

Fair or not, that is the impression that people have, and without ensuring there is a decent budget being spent on marketing the Bailiwick in the UK it will not shift, no matter how long you make the runway or how many boats Condor buys or how many tweets or Instagram posts you send out of pretty beaches.

If Guernsey is not serious about its visitor economy, it should admit it.

But at the moment we have a failing strategy with no clear plan of action to turn fortunes around.

Budgets have been cut.

In 2015, the budget for marketing and tourism was £2.7m., for 2016 it was £2.651m. and for 2017 £2.585m.

Try to wring any details of how the money is spent beyond five broad headlines and you are met with resistance which always includes the line that it would give our competitors an advantage to know how we are using the cash.

They are already winning.

The marketing slogan goes that Great Things Happen in Guernsey – and most of these great things can be attributed to groups of volunteers and private individuals. Take just one example, the Guernsey Literary Festival, which has just finished. And then think, has tourism made the most of the opportunity it presented to attract more people here?

There is a golden opportunity on the horizon to attract more visitors to the island – it is barely a secret.

The film adaptation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is due out next year, with principal photography already wrapped and generating national attention.

It would be criminal if Guernsey did not redouble its efforts on the back of its release – and yes, that means spending more money on marketing and other areas – it is a one-off opportunity that will not be repeated.

We are yet to hear what the plans are from VisitGuernsey, but the spotlight will be shining brightly.

The island needs to position itself to capitalise on that – and do so in a co-ordinated way.

If the visitor statistics do not start climbing with that kind of international exposure, something really is amiss.