As the credit crisis deepens, industry members are reported to fear a major slump in full-price bookings during the crucial first two months of the new year, when many holiday decisions are made. Sadly, that prediction is likely to prove correct, leaving many hoteliers with little choice but to slash prices in order to fill beds.
The silver lining to that particular cloud is that a necessarily short-lived combination of cheap deals and high quality may serve to introduce new generations of visitors to the pleasures of a trip to Jersey, after years of our being overshadowed by more exotic and affordable destinations.
Thanks to our coast, beaches, countryside and heritage, this remains a great place for a holiday. In addition, after a long period of adjustment, much sub-standard accommodation has been removed from the market and recent years have seen major investment by new enterprises and a significant increase in quality and innovation.
The major obstacles to rebuilding the tourism industry from this platform are the prohibitive cost of getting here and the consistent weakness of national marketing campaigns which, most years, have been either disappointingly dull or too clever, or both. In the new economic circumstances, it is to be hoped that the 2009 campaign being unveiled on 8 January will emphasise the simple pleasures of old-fashioned family holidays — something the times demand and for which the Channel Islands are ideally suited.
Although ‘holidays close to home’ will be a selling point, thanks to the weakness of the pound, tourism ought also to market aggressively beyond the confines of the UK market, to which it has clung a little too tightly for too long. Europe starts at St Malo, which is even closer, and contains millions of potential visitors, many in possession of newly strong euros to make a visit to a sterling destination even more attractive.
Politically, tourism is now in the re-mit of a new Economic Development Minister, Alan Maclean, who has promised financial support for the industry. The revival of tourism must undoubtedly remain a major plank of States economic policy, to diversify the economy, to protect the environment and to create new jobs in a deep-rooted traditional industry which continues to have huge untapped potential for the future — but Senator Maclean’s promise of direct funding for businesses is harder to justify, other than perhaps in the form of cheap loans.
This is a a long-term process and taxpayers’ money would be better directed towards investments of a more indirect nature, such as international marketing, subsi-dised travel, the creation of new rural footpaths and the funding of other environmental projects to enhance the natural beauty which, when all is said and done, remains the tourism industry’s prime asset.
