A new plan aimed at boosting Jerseys visitor numbers has been unveiled today – Tristram Colledge spoke to the man behind it, Keith Beecham of Visit Jersey
VISIT Jersey’s mission has been clear for some time: attract one million visitors a year to the Island by 2030.
Although the tourism industry has reportedly this year enjoyed its best season for seven years, concerns have been raised that the target is a lofty ambition and that increasing numbers by 300,000 over a 15-year period is near impossible.
Of course, the company set up to market Jersey to holidaymakers begs to differ.
There have been hints but exactly how they intend to realise their goal has so far been remained a relative mystery.
That is, until now. With today’s release of the Destination Plan for Jersey, Keith Beecham, the man tasked with leading the tourism charge, presents his action plan for hitting the one million visitor mark.
At the core of the blueprint are 21 recommendations covering a wide range of topics. Here are some of the main themes in the plan:
Developing a Jersey brand
One of Visit Jersey’s main priorities is creating a Jersey ‘proposition’ – a clear marketing image for the Island.
Several outside agencies are currently working with the organisation with the aim of creating a finalised product by the spring.
Mr Beecham said that the process could result in a new logo and slogan for the Island but the initial aim was to clarify Jersey’s ‘story’ for holidaymakers.
Read a full JEP interview with Keith Beecham from May this year here
‘Jersey’s experience and our content is wonderful – we know that because Tripadvisor and other travel sites regularly has Jersey as a top destination,’ he said.
‘But what we don’t have is a storyline – our real challenge is to find the essence.
‘What we are looking at is identifying what Jersey’s promise is.
‘We are going to promise something to a visitor, but what is that?
‘It’s making sure that when people see or read about the promise they get some emotional engagement.’
Forging new air links with the UK and Europe
Mr Beecham said it was vital that Jersey expanded its current transport links.
Although there are specific destinations in mind at the moment, the company is looking at increasing routes in northern Europe.
Mr Beecham said: ‘To have sustainable growth we need to work with all of our partners – our airports, our carriers – and encourage them to continue servicing the routes and with good solid research look for new routes.
‘Part of our plan going forward will be to work with the ports to identify any potential new routes that could be sustained.
‘We think some of the Scandinavian markets offer an opportunity.
‘Initially that will be through charter, but we want to look at creating permanent links over the long term.’
Digital marketing
This year Visit Jersey launched the Escape to Jersey marketing campaign through its website and social media outlets.
It generated more than 90,000 visits to the site by nearly 75,000 separate visitors. Mr Beecham said that the company needed to build on the campaign to create further digitally led marketing.
‘I think it’s about understanding how potential visitors consume their information – people are moving away from television to Youtube and to social media,’ he said.
‘A large part of Visit Jersey’s marketing is going to be digital – we have to work really hard on our media programme.
‘We know that bloggers and video bloggers are a great platform for marketing, so we want to spend more and more time with these people.’
Researching different markets
As part of the research into the plan Visit Jersey conducted a survey of nearly 3,000 individuals who live within 60 miles of airports or ports that offer regular access to Jersey.
From the sample it was concluded that just over eight million people from the UK would ‘strongly consider’ visiting the Island and 11 million would ‘not rule it out’.
But according to Mr Beecham that is just the start of the research.
‘What we have managed to do is to identify the scale of the size of the prize in the UK,’ he said.
‘We think there are about 20 million people who are not rejecting Jersey – some are ready to travel and some could be persuaded to travel.
‘It’s the first time that we have an idea of what the market potential in the UK looks like.
‘We have also been able to understand what is important for people in the UK and how does Jersey compare to other potential visitor destinations in Britain.
‘But what we need to do now is the same research in Europe, in Scandinavia, Ireland and France.’
Creating a year-long tourism economy
Several of the recommendations revolve around increasing the number of events held in the ‘shoulder months’ – the months either side of the summer season – so that tourists continue to visit Jersey year round.
Mr Beecham said: ‘We have some great events, but can we identify and develop more events which showcase the best that Jersey has to offer and encourage people to come outside of the main season?
‘There are lots of different opportunities that we can explore, such as sporting, food and cultural events that would showcase Jersey to tourists outside of the main summer season.’
Visit Jersey
In March 2014 the Tourism Shadow Board announced plans to create an independent organisation to overhaul tourism marketing in the Island.
Less than a year later Jersey Tourism closed its doors for the last time and Visit Jersey was born.
IF anyone awaiting the publication of Visit Jersey’s Destination Plan was expecting a single silver bullet to usher in a new golden era of Jersey tourism, they may well be disappointed.
The plan is a consultation document which sets out areas which need to be looked at if we are going to achieve the target of one million visitors a year by 2030.
For decades, JEP readers have, on the letters page for the newspaper, shared their thoughts and ideas about this vital sector of a economy and, at regular intervals, vented their frustration that too little was being done.
Now is the time to channel that interest and passion into a constructive debate which can help deliver workable solutions to questions which have been biting at the heels of politicians for many years.
How does this beautiful Island market itself and as what? How can more routes be opened up to make it easier and affordable for people to get here? What are the expectations of today’s holidaymaker and how to we meet them? And so the list goes on.
Cynics might say we have been here before. No matter how dynamic the plan, they may find it hard to curb the nagging feeling that no one will have the political will or foresight to see it through to implementation.
Before moving to the Treasury, Senator Alan Maclean was a strong supporter of shaking up Tourism and was instrumental in the creation of Visit Jersey as a way to bring a new approach.
With his hands on the purse strings, there is every reason to think he will support his successor at Economic Development, Senator Lyndon Farnham, a man who works in the industry and has made clear his resolve to get the job done.
We may be some way from having an action plan and the tricky question of how to fund initiatives that could help boost visitor numbers has not really begun. What we do have, however, is an industry coming together and showing a welcome appetite to work with government and Visit Jersey.
Mr Beecham and his team have got the debate off to a positive start with a refreshing focus in the right areas and some interesting ideas for discussion. The consultation may not be a silver bullet, but we are now armed and have a target to aim for. And that’s a good start.
