Like the old postcards, tourism could just fade away

Notwithstanding the groundbreaking magnitude of so many inventions, it does not require a brain such as that possessed by the inventor of the worldwide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to come up with a glitteringly bright idea.

Browsing the online version of the Western Morning News last week, I came across a story that captured my imagination. It told of an enterprising youngster, Alex Dellmuro, who has established a five-star hotel at his family farm overlooking St Ives Bay. The ten-year-old entrepreneur is offering tip-top accommodation, attentive staff, bottled water and stunning views, and all for the bargain price of £1 a night.

What’s the catch? Well, the clue is in the name of the business, Hamster Holidays.

Yes, hamster enthusiast Alex has opened a business to care for holidaymakers’ little furry friends while their owners enjoy the delights of Cornwall. Inspired by his mother, Suzanne, who used to care for other people’s animals, Alex is advertising on the internet and has produced leaflets to promote his service.

As so many people who holiday in Cornwall take the pet dog along to the canine-friendly county, why not give the hamster a relaxing break, too? After all, we are known as a nation of animal lovers who spend a fortune every year on our pets.

Guests have to take their own cage, bedding and food, while Alex provides them with a warm, safe environment, care, and plenty of that bottled water. The idea is not quite as crazy as may first appear, as he already has bookings.

Alex’s venture may not put Cornwall on such a global map as Tim Smit’s Eden Project has, but at least he is showing initiative.

The hamster enterprise got me thinking about how to kick-start our own tourism industry out of this year’s doldrums. Not that I am advocating making the Island a premier destination for small furry creatures, as it is never likely to develop into a mass market and, moreover, hamsters are not renowned for their spending power.

However, while more dog-friendly holiday accommodation wouldn’t go amiss, it is going to take a far greater offer than a pet-friendly resort to salvage this year’s tourism market.

As predicted last year by some experts in the travel industry, Jersey, like resorts in the UK, is suffering from the Olympic Effect: whenever a city hosts the greatest show on earth, tourists stay away.

Moreover, television viewing figures and the unprecedented crowds who have attended the ‘free to view’ events have shown that millions of Brits have travelled to London to soak up this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

London’s lot has not been helped due to its reputation as a very expensive place to stay in and visit. If only its hospitality industry had discounted instead of bumping up prices, business would not be so markedly down. They have no one to blame but their greedy selves.

Nonetheless, the capital city has seen a significant influx of visitors during the Olympics, as borne out by the record-breaking Tube journeys taken on the middle Friday and second Tuesday of the Games. They just didn’t stay in expensive hotels, eat out in swanky restaurants or visit attractions, because there were simply too many Olympic events on offer. With large free screens to watch the action on, people gathered together and soaked up the atmosphere.

As the entertaining travel writer Simon Calder predicted on a recent visit to the Island, 2012 is going to be a tough year for Jersey. This much-travelled man of simple tastes sees the Island’s future lying with budget airlines and attracting a younger and higher-spending market – especially those who live and work inside the M25 – for whom the delights of a holiday in Jersey are just a short flight away.

You don’t have to an economist to realise that an economy with one giant egg dwarfing those of minute proportions in its basket is on a dodgy wicket – even if it was laid by the goose who lays low-tax golden eggs. Jersey’s tourism industry has to be a viable alternative income generator to the finance industry.

I can’t imagine that anyone who works outside the tourism industry would want to go back to the days when this little rock was bursting at the seams with holidaymakers. Overcrowded beaches, interminable evening rush-hour traffic jams, tacky gift shops and convoys of coach trips crawling along narrow roads have long gone, thank goodness.

What Jersey offers now is of better quality and, thankfully, on a smaller scale ,but there is no denying that it could do with a little ooomph.

The suggestions in the JEP’s vox pop last Friday – cost of travel, nothing to do when it rains, open more attractions, cater more for young families – are hardly new.

They pretty much formed the substance of a speech I made in a school debating competition in my outspoken youth. I didn’t have the answers then and I don’t profess to now.

But unless someone somewhere soon comes up with a solution to revitalising Jersey’s tourism offering to attract a younger market, then like those old holiday postcards, it could be in danger of fading away.