A VISITOR who has come to Jersey at least twice a year for more than half a century has written an impassioned letter to the JEP, lamenting the loss of the Island’s appeal to tourists.
Patricia Gray, from Hull, who describes herself as a “loyal visitor since 1973”, said that she hoped that “those in power recognise what is at stake before it’s too late”.
Her letter has struck a chord with many in the Island, including the Jersey Hospitality Association, who said they would like to make her an honorary member.
Mrs Gray wrote: “As someone who has been visiting Jersey faithfully every year since 1973, at one time as many as five times a year and still at least twice annually, I write this letter with deep affection for the Island but with growing concern.
“Over the decades, I have witnessed Jersey at its finest, a proud Island full of charm, warmth and energy where visitors were made to feel special and the tourism offering was second to none. Sadly, each year I return I find that spirit now fading.
“It pains me to say it, but the Island is starting to look unloved and uncared for. What was once a jewel in the Channel is beginning to feel unloved. So many of the attractions that once gave visitors a reason to return time and again sadly have now gone.
“The vibrant events calendar, the bustling tourist sites, the seasonal atmosphere that once filled the air no longer exist. Places that used to be thriving are now closed or tired. Surely it cannot be left solely to the hotels to carry the weight of attracting and retaining guests.”
She continued: “A healthy tourism industry needs to be supported from all sides with well maintained public spaces, vibrant culture, meaningful promotion and most importantly visible investment.
“Instead, I see works and road closures scattered across the Island in the height of the summer season, disrupting not just locals but the very visitors that Island still hopes to attract.
“Public areas that should be clean, welcoming and scenic are instead unsightly, unfinished or out of action. The high hopes of attracting visitors with the new remake of the Bergerac series is lost on the fact that the majority of the filming is not even done on the Island, which is quite disappointing.”
She added: “From my observations, it feels as if the Government of Jersey have forgotten the importance of tourism altogether: the sector that once helped put Jersey on the map now seems to sit at the bottom of the priority list, if it features at all. This is more than disappointing and short sighted.
“Tourism once lost is incredibly difficult to regain. It is all well and good to now put the finance industry in first place, do they have short memories, it wasn’t so many years ago that a lot of the finance industry pulled out of the Island and moved to the Isle of Man, granted some came back but history has a way of repeating itself.
“Jersey still has so much to offer but needs attention, pride and leadership. I write this not out of bitterness but in hope that those in power will recognise what is at stake before it’s too late.
“I don’t want to be telling people in the future that ‘I’ve had the best years of Jersey’ which will happen if things don’t alter.
Responding to the letter, Marcus Calvani, co-CEO of the JHA, said: “I would love for Mrs Gray to return to Jersey because I’d like to make her an honorary member.
“Thank you, Mrs Gray, for coming to Jersey at least twice a year since 1973. That’s a remarkable thing and says a lot about what our Island actually does have to offer.
“And I think what Mrs Gray very clearly points out is we as an Island are special. We have the DNA to be something very special. And yet the people who are in power have failed year after year to make it as good as it can be.”
He added: “It’s sad that somebody in Hull recognises this. I think we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and realise that we can be better. We have the DNA; we have the opportunity to be better and attract people from far further afield than Hull, and young people too.
“But if we don’t all align, if Government just leaves it to the Economy Department instead of every department playing its part, then it won’t simply happen.
“And without hospitality, our connectivity is gone, our quality of life is gone, and other industries will choose somewhere else to do business.”
Mr Calvani added that Mrs Gray “was bang on with everything that we’ve been talking about for the last 18 months”.
He added: “If we’re going to get confidence in our industry to invest in the Jersey product, then the government has got to step up, and it’s got to take care of the infrastructure of this island. Our government has not taken our industry seriously for the past three decades and have assumed that it will just keep going.
“The strategy is there, now get on and implement it. The call is to get the barriers out the way for the private sector to enable it to do what it needs to do and let government do what it needs to do.
“There can be no more increases in the cost of doing business, because we’re outpricing ourselves as an island. You have one arm of the government pushing up the minimum wage, talking about an increase in alcohol duty, talking about an introduction of a new fee for food licencing and creating new bureaucracy.
“But you have another part of the government talking about reduction of bureaucracy and cutting the costs of doing business so the Island can be competitive. The two just don’t align.
“There is a very clear understanding that Jersey is a very expensive place to do business, and therefore it is very expensive for people to come here.
“We’ve got available occupancy on aircraft of around 30 per cent and we need to fill those seats in order to secure our long-term connectivity. The budget of Visit Jersey hasn’t gone up in over ten years so there’s been no extra investment in marketing the Island, which desperately needs to be changed.”
However, Mr Calvani added that he welcomed this week’s news that the government planned to commit to an ambitious capital programme to improve the Island’s infrastructure.
“This plan is not about government building hotels, it’s about government finally building confidence. If Jersey wants a thriving visitor economy, it must first deliver the infrastructure that enables private sector investment,” he said.
Mrs Gray’s plea to Jersey is not only grounded in anecdote, albeit based on 51 years of experience; it is also supported by data this year.
Between January and May, there were 149,000 visits to Jersey, a 14% fall on the same period last year.
There were 62,000 leisure visitors who stayed at least one night, a 28% decline compared to 2024, and 561,000 visitor bed nights, a 10% decline on 2024.
The average length of stay was 4.3 nights, 0.3 nights more than 2024.
In other statistics, there were 317,000 departing passengers, a 7% fall on 2024.
The decline, however, can be attributed: the biggest fall in visitors by country was France, with 11,600 fewer in the first five months, representing a 39% fall. There were 1,500 fewer German visitors over the period, which was a 38% fall.
In that period, DFDS took over running Jersey’s ferry services from Condor.
The Danish operator was forced to postpone fast-ferry services to St Malo at the end of March by two weeks following a technical issue with a ramp on its Tarifa Jet.
Meanwhile, the number of visitors coming to Guernsey from France, using French operator Brittany Ferries, more than doubled in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
The government, and grant-funded promotional body Visit Jersey, will clearly hope that this is a temporary blip. The first series of the resurrected Bergerac, which had a positive impact on tourism in the 1980s, was so popular that a second series has been commissioned, with filming about to start.
The first series received a £714,000 government grant towards its production and the second series will also be supported.
There have also been several announcements of investment in hospitality recently, including hotel plans for Strive in St Peter, La Folie Inn at the Harbour, and central St Helier.
Jersey launched a Visitor Economy Strategy in January 2024, with a vision to be “a globally recognised, sustainable and enriching destination that Islanders are proud to share”.
Visit Jersey declined to comment on Mrs Gray’s letter, saying that the government would be better placed to respond to the points she raised.
Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel said: “Mrs Gray has some really good points and I would really welcome her feedback. I would also love to reassure her the tourism is a real priority for me and this government.
“The recently announced investment programme has tourism in mind, including making improvements in St Helier.
“There has been a history over the past 30 years of not investing in Jersey’s infrastructure that is changing. People also understand that finance relies on tourism as much as tourism relies on finance
“One of the reasons Jersey is an attractive place for finance firms is its connectivity but we would not have so many flights, for example, to and from London, without our tourists.”
He added: “We are putting more money into the industry this year and next, particularly for advertising in Europe.
“We have also launched the Better Business Support programme. In essence, this is recreating the Tourism Development Fund, allowing businesses to access grants to invest in themselves. It is a two-way street: government needs to invest but so too does the private sector. The programme has got off to a good start in that the uptake has been far better than expected.
“So, I say to Mrs Gray that we are making positive changes and I urge her to continue coming back. As long as I am involved, I will make sure that tourism remains a high priority.”
