On 3 July, Jersey reopened its ports to incoming non-essential visitors and accommodation providers have reported that interest in the Island grew immediately, albeit occupancy rates are still well below normal levels.
Both Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham and Visit Jersey chief executive Keith Beecham said that much more work needed to be done if business were to survive the winter and be ready for a potential bounce-back next year.
Senator Farnham said that the testing regime at Jersey’s borders, which had regularly published results, had helped boost confidence in the Island as a destination. But he added many businesses in the accommodation sector would remain in ‘survival mode’ until the pandemic came to an end.
‘For all tourism-related businesses, especially the accommodation sector, the move to introduce testing at the borders and the fiscal-policy measures are helping them to survive,’ the Senator said.
‘But very few of these businesses are going to prosper, we fear, until a return to normality, which would entail vaccines and a further relaxation of guidelines. So, it’s extremely difficult.
‘I believe we have an excellent tourism product and the industry will fully recover in the fullness of time but we need to continue supporting the industry in the interim to make sure we don’t lose key assets such as accommodation and transport links.
‘There is a bit of a bounce-back but most tourism industries are in survival mode. What we need is for them to be ready for next summer, which we hope will be significantly improved on this summer.
‘There are suggestions that there will be strong interest from 2021 onwards and that’s why we need to protect what we have.’
Mr Beecham said that Visit Jersey, which promoted the Island as a destination, was about to launch a marketing campaign, including an initiative to raise awareness of the safety of the Island in relation to Covid-19.
‘We are looking to introduce “Stay Safe” with the Jersey Hospitality Association, which will aim to give visitors coming to Jersey confidence that our hotels and restaurants are all meeting very high standards of health and safety,’ he said.
‘We are also gearing up our own marketing and we’ll be seeing an increased weight of advertising now that routes are open and businesses are following safety guidelines. We are helping visitors see Jersey is a great place to come as part of a British Isles “staycation” experience. You can see round the Island that we are now getting a few foreign-plated cars here and we should look at that positively.’
He added: ‘One thing we would like to do is extend the tourism season an extra month into October, by focusing on a wellbeing offering. We are also in discussions with easyJet, BA and Condor about a joint campaign to bring visitors to Jersey.’
Mr Beecham said that people ‘hadn’t fallen out of love’ with Jersey, with many holidaymakers postponing bookings until next year, rather than cancelling them outright.
‘When we talk to travel and tour operators they are saying that visitors who have booked to come to Jersey haven’t necessarily asked for a refund – a lot of them have rebooked for next year,’ he said.
‘That is really encouraging.’
More coverage in today’s JEP.
