A Jersey politician has questioned the performance of Visit Jersey in light of falling visiting numbers and continued government investment.
Figures from Visit Jersey released in June showed there were 35,200 visitors in April – a drop of 7,100 on last year, and in March, there were 26,200 – 1,300 fewer than the previous year.
In the States Assembly, Deputy Karen Wilson asked the economic development minister why visitor numbers were falling despite top up funding to Visit Jersey in 2024.
Speaking to the BBC after the debate, Wilson said if “current performance levels continue then questions clearly need to be asked”. Visit Jersey has been approached for comment.
Deputy Kirsten Morel, Minister for Sustainable Economic Development, told the assembly that Visit Jersey would get a £2m investment this year and another £2m next year.
Wilson, who sits on the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel, said: “It’s a lot of money… I mean £4m over two years which we will be keeping a close eye on.
“I don’t know if I have full confidence as yet, I’d like to see some more results. I think the quarter two return will be quite interesting to see.
“We do need to see if that pattern is reversing and if the money is being spent on the right things.
“One of the things I would be looking for is what are the ways and means Visit Jersey engaging with the industry across the island to try and broaden their scope to try and get off the clickbait type of approach, to try and get some real engagement and participation across the island.”
But Morel said: “I think it is really important to put it [the money] into one marketing organisation because then you end up with money that is dispersed and becomes ineffective because its too thinly spread.”
“I think Visit Jersey are doing a really good job marketing the island, so we know we have a lot of people looking at Jersey, the difficult is getting them to do the booking.”
Morel acknowledged that delays to picking a ferry operator had contributed to declining visitor numbers, but a lack of consumer confidence in the UK was also a factor.
He said: “We are seeing other UK dependant markets have much lower tourism figures because of that, Ireland has a 14% decline in UK tourism, we have a 7% decrease in tourism in Jersey as well.”
Morel said another challenge was that Jersey was a high-price destination where the product was not always living up to expectation.
He said: “We need to work with the industry to make sure we have investment in our hotels, our retail, our attractions.
“That means when people look at Jersey, they can see value in booking here, and that’s not always the case at the moment because the price is quite high and the product isn’t always where it needs to be.”
Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
