However, Keith Beecham, the body’s chief executive, said he expects to record improved overall figures later in 2018.
And, despite the drop, he said they had recorded a nine per cent increase in spending by visitors – up to £109 million.
A steep fall in the value of the pound is also thought to have so far enticed 25 per cent more French visitors to Jersey during the same period – with a total of 66,000 coming over between January and June.
Explaining why he thinks visitor numbers had, according to Visit Jersey’s half-year exit survey, dropped, Mr Beecham said: ‘During the first half of this year the weather was awful and access was challenging at times. According to our data, the visiting family and relative market was down 18 per cent and people not coming over to see their family and relatives because of access was part of that challenge.
‘We have also seen a reduction in German numbers but that is not too worrying as the German charters which bring over the big groups had not kicked in at the start of the year.’
Mr Beecham, whose organisation has been tasked with trying to encourage a million visitors to Jersey annually by 2030, added that the early Easter holidays had also contributed to the drop with fewer people choosing to travel.
‘Easter was early this year and according to travel patterns, both here and in the UK, when the weather is not good people do not tend to travel.
‘The figures do not make me say “oh my goodness gracious” and I think we should see some positive figures later this year.’
And he said that the improved global security situation may also have encouraged more Europeans to visit and spend more as a result of the weak pound.
‘The French market has really bounced back,’ he said. ‘If we go back to the first quarter of last year, we saw quite a few terrorist attacks and mums and dads have not been keen on letting their children travel away from home.
‘We have now seen a bounce back from that and an improvement in the safety and security situation.
‘Those coming from European destinations have more pounds to spend and Jersey is more attractive to them because of that.’
