French lessons offered as ferry visitors surge
French taster sessions have been put on for businesses by the States as the number of people arriving from St Malo booms.
There was a 121% increase in passengers arriving into the island from the French port last month compared to June 2024 – an uplift of around 2,900 people.
April and May also saw strong improvements on 2024 levels, up 60% and 73% respectively.
Brittany Ferries said its new schedule for France, along with efforts to improve the promotion of the island, have led to the “very positive” figures.
‘Really thrilled’
“What is particularly positive is that many of these visitors are choosing to stay overnight, providing a real boost to our hospitality and tourism sectors,” it said.
The States of Guernsey and The Guernsey Institute had been providing free French language lessons for hospitality and tourism businesses in response.
Juliana Le Prevost, a French teacher from the Institute said the courses started last week and had been well received by attendees.
“We did a course specialized for the industry, so that means for retail, hospitality and transport, and it has been very successful so far,” she said.
“What we did is to start with the greetings of course, understanding how to be formal, informal, and also being familiar with numbers, which is really important for the hospitality or retail businesses.
“And directions, because the French tourists would like to go to the Victor Hugo House or know how to get to the bus station.
“They were actually really thrilled to be able at least to say a few words French and to be able to give a good service.”
Debraj Chakrabarti, Reception Manager at the Pandora Hotel who attended one of the sessions, said it was useful to make the growing number of French tourists feel welcome.
He said: “Lots of French people who doesn’t understand or speak English, they’re going to be more comfortable with the journey and the memory of our island.
“Not only French people are coming, now we are getting tourists from the US, Germany, Netherlands, Dutch and Australia as well and they are very much interested in Victor Hugo and also the history of the island.”
Christine Bonhomme, Director of Maison de la Normandie et de la Manche which promoted the Channel Islands in those regions, said the courses would make the island more attractive to visitors.
“Visit Guernsey has taken a great initiative by offering French lessons to hospitality staff and we are certain this will be most welcomed by French visitors,” she said.
Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
