Guernsey’s Committee for Economic Development has released a ten-point plan for Guernsey tourism to cover the period from now until 2025, which includes areas such as improving the island’s air and sea links, investigating the merits of extending the island’s runway and improving the quality of the island’s accommodation offering.
The plan is an update on the current ‘Guernsey Tourism Strategic Plan 2015-2025’, which was produced by Commerce and Employment in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce five years ago.
The new review says the Committee and its tourism trade and industry stakeholder partners should have the following five key strategic aims:
- Develop affordable, reliable and sustainable air and sea links;
- Strengthen the islands’ unique product offering;
- Deliver an exceptional visitor experience;
- Develop a positive environment for growth and investment; and
- Develop marketing and messaging that is consistent and compelling.
The ten action points of the plan have been broken down into three separate areas:
Game changers (fundamentally important to the future sustainability of the industry):
- Review the Population Management and Immigration legislation and policies to help address any material staff recruitment and staff retention issues.
- Confirm the business case for the extension of the airport runway.
- Investigate opportunities to improve the ferry service provision to the island.
Enablers (key to unlocking future potential):
- Invest in the development of existing and new sustainable air routes to the island.
- Further invest in and develop the cruise passenger experience/sector.
- Investigate the opportunity to reduce red tape with regards to tourism planning and investment.
Acceleration (key to driving future growth):
- Develop campaigns and activities to target Guernsey’s core target markets to drive awareness and reduce seasonality.
- Support the delivery of the Seafront Enhancement Area (SEA) programme/plans for the benefit of tourism.
- Investigate the opportunity to help improve the breadth and quality of the island’s accommodation offering.
- Investigate the opportunity to support the development of quality destination attractions through public/private collaboration.
Mike Hopkins, director of marketing and tourism, said: ‘A significant amount of progress has been achieved by the Committee and its industry partners over the past, at times, very challenging five years. Addressing and turning around over twenty years of consistent visitor decline was never going to be easy or achieved overnight, however over the past five years we have seen the excellent progress made help deliver the early signs of visitor growth, especially for the high value staying leisure visitor market.
‘To help continue that trend our collective attention needs to be given to the ten priority areas that will help make the greatest impact over the next five years, and this document sets out those ten plans in a concise and straightforward manner.’
Deputy Joe Mooney, tourism lead for the Committee for Economic Development said: ‘To help determine the future shape of, and the growth potential for the visitor market it is essential that the question over the possible extension of the airport runway is answered. One of the priority action plans detailed in the ten-point plan is to complete and confirm the business case for the extension of the runway, and I am pleased to say that this work is now taking place, and the Committee will continue to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce and with our trade and industry partners to deliver the other important nine action plans also.’
