Jon Morgan, of the Shell Garden, claims that his attraction is a barometer of pure tourist numbers because it is almost exclusively visitors who walk around the gardens on Mont Les Vaux in St Brelade. And he says that numbers could be down by 30% on last year. Although the number of people arriving in Jersey was up by nearly six per cent to over 521,000 in the first half of the year, as compared to 2006, Mr Morgan believes that much of the growth has come from business visitors and Islanders making more trips as a result of more flights and greater competition on car ferry routes to France. However, the president of the Jersey Hospitality Association, Robyn Lapidus, denied that there was any conspiracy to cover up a poor visitor season. He said that the industry would like to have more complete figures supplied by Jersey Tourism so that a proper analysis can be carried out of actual holidaymaker numbers.
