Number of staying business visitors falls, according to estimates

Non-leisure day trips were also down last year, by 21%, to 40,000.

Overall, the number of visits to the Island fell by 4% to 692,000. However, the 2016 data has been calculated only as a ‘best estimate’, following changes to the way information is collected by the organisation, which is responsible for marketing the Island as a tourist destination.

In the first half of last year, data continued to be monitored by a combination of visitor registration cards, combined with a 2012 exit survey. From July, Visit Jersey changed to an ‘exit survey’ approach, which they say will provide richer and more frequent statistical information.

According to the organisation’s annual report for 2016, staying leisure visits increased by 3%, to 356,000. The average spend of £330 per visit was two per cent less than in the previous year, with the total spend of £228m, 6% lower than in 2015.

The number of visits from the other Channel Islands fell by 22%, to 17,000, visits to friends and relatives decreased by 6%, to 100,000, and leisure day trips were also down, by 3%, to 105,000. But of the staying leisure visitors, there were 6% more German visitors and the number of UK visitors also increased by 7%, to 269,000. French visits fell 6% to 34,000.

Visit Jersey chief executive Keith Beecham said: ‘We will be able to provide richer, regular tourism data from July this year, once we have a year of exit survey data.

‘This provides a more detailed analysis than was possible with the previous method.’

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –