Success of driest Stag do in town
SPORTS COMMISSION chief executive David Harry has accused Economic Development of being dishonest in their approach to recognising the strength of sports tourism on island.
Speaking at a successful and well attended foundation meeting of Stag – Sports Tourism Action Group – at Beau Sejour, Harry said the taxes paid by the island’s small number of sports development officers was more than the meagre £28,350 that sport was given to promote sporting events on island.
Rugby alone, it turns out, generates £500,000 a year in terms of flights in and out of the island, but while the oval ball game keeps accurate and up-to-date figures on their annual travel, many other sports did not and, said Harry, it was vital, going forward, that they did.
Harry, who revealed that there were 10,568 ‘travels’ out of the island for sport in 2017, named and shamed those sports who did not answer the commission’s appeal for travel stats as they set about disproving Economic Development’s clearly misleading claim that sport contributed just 1% of the total number of individual movements in and out of Guernsey.
While Guernsey FC readily gave details of their travel figures, the Guernsey FA did not, and nor did sports such as cycling and netball.
Full story in Saturday's Guernsey Press
