Latest figures show that nearly 5,000 fewer people have travelled between Jersey and Germany on direct flights so far this year compared to the same period in 2016.
The drop in visitor numbers has been attributed to the fact that Air Berlin, which previously operated flights to the Island from several German cities, failed to return this year and last week filed for bankruptcy.
Keith Beecham, chief executive of Visit Jersey, said Air Berlin pulled out of the Island for financial reasons, not because Jersey was an unattractive destination.
He added that the remaining direct flights to and from Jersey were operating close to capacity.
‘I do not dispute that there are fewer Germans around compared to previous years but we now need to look ahead to 2018 and we should know where we stand within the next six to eight weeks,’ Mr Beecham said.
‘We have had some very constructive discussions and have been speaking with companies such as Lufthansa, Eurowings, easyJet and Globalis. Things are heading in a positive direction.’
In 2016, Air Berlin operated a number of once-a-week seasonal scheduled services from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hannover and Stuttgart. So far this year 8,784 passengers have travelled between Jersey and Germany on direct services compared to 13,760 over the same period in 2016.
Despite the work to introduce more routes, Mr Beecham said: ‘If we do get these routes in place I think it is more likely to be in a couple of years.’
Flybe took on the Düsseldorf route following the collapse of Air Berlin and the airline has said that the route has proven so popular that it intends to run it again next year.
Once-a-week services are also operated by Lufthansa to Munich and Eurowings to Düsseldorf.
Meanwhile, 1,500 passengers have also flown by direct charter flights so far this year.
Heidi Ebenschwaiger, director of Jersey Special Tours, a German language tour company, said that her bookings this year have been down by about 40 per cent compared to 2016.
She said: ‘It has been dreadful. We have lost so many flights and there do not seem to be many individual visitors coming any more.
‘If they have to get a connecting flight it can take around ten hours to get here – you could get a flight to Asia in that time.’
