Simon Soar of the Jersey Hospitality Association said that August had seen good levels of trade following a gradual climb since the Island’s borders opened on 3 July.
But Mr Soar admitted there was concern that relatively few visitors had yet committed for September and October, and fears that numbers could be affected if Covid-19 levels in the UK were to climb.
The UK’s figure for active cases per 100,000 people fell slightly from 20.7 to 20.4 yesterday but remains uncomfortably close to Jersey’s upper limit for green status of 25. Should the case numbers climb above 25 per 100,000 people then travellers from the UK would be required to isolate for five days and post two negative tests before they can go out.
The government has mentioned three times in recent weeks that it is considering the introduction of regional risk ratings for the UK to reflect the spikes in parts of the north of England, but has yet to confirm whether such a strategy will be adopted.
Mr Soar said it was not yet clear how a regional system would work, and said it would be unfortunate if this affected a tourist season already badly hit by the pandemic.
‘Trade was slow to build during July and a lot of the traffic to begin with was people visiting friends and family here, but we have picked up in August, although it’s unfortunate that there are only a couple of weeks of the school holiday period left,’ he said.
‘We hope September will be okay, and the weather will be good, but at the moment the forward bookings aren’t there – people are making decisions at the last minute and it makes it hard for businesses to forecast.’
The current levels of business have provided some fleeting good news for the Island’s tourist industry, which would usually expect six months of healthy trade.
Mr Soar paid tribute to the work that had gone into getting the Island open for business.
‘I think Jersey has done a great job in controlling the number of cases by testing and enabling visitors to come here,’ he said.
