Both retailers and sports clubs have welcomed the announcement that a company has been found to offer a day-trip service between Jersey and Guernsey.
Gerald Voisin, owner of Voisins department store, said the move could see an increase in the number of shoppers coming to the Island.
He said: ‘I think it could be very positive. Condor took the decision to change their timetable last December and it meant that you could not do a day return to Guernsey and vice versa.
‘It is hard to put a number on how many visitors will come here but we have appreciated shoppers from Guernsey in the past and certainly noticed when they were not coming here any more.
‘Shopping in Guernsey is appalling and there is little choice – there is such a high level of online shopping there, whereas there is a lot of choice here.’
Mark Sheldon, president of St Paul’s Football Club, said that it was currently easier and cheaper to participate in events in the UK than it was to compete in Guernsey and that his club had previously had to pull out of inter-island tournaments before they had concluded.
He said: ‘Flying all our players over to Guernsey can cost us about £2,000, which is a massive hit to our budget. It is cheaper to play in the UK.
‘You can stand in some places on the Island and see Guernsey so to spend £110 for a return ticket seems a bit ridiculous.’
The club president also said that they had previously had to pull out of tournaments in Guernsey altogether, despite fielding one of the strongest teams, and hoped that an inter-island ferry could lead to the formation of a Channel Islands league.
He said: ‘We have had to pull out of the Jeremie Cup on a few occasions, purely because of financial issues. For a club like us, if we have to play four away games, that is £8,000. We cannot just throw that sort of money around.
‘If the schedule works then this could be really good for us. It would give us a bit of breathing space.’
Chris Minty, chief executive of the Jersey Cricket Board, said that if a suitable schedule was developed, it could lead to the expansion of the existing Channel Islands Cricket League.
He said: ‘If the schedule allows us to spend seven or eight hours in Guernsey to play a full game of cricket then it should work well for us. Guernsey have the same problem coming here.
‘Flying is very expensive and has limited us quite a lot. This just opens up more possibilities for us to travel at less of a cost.
‘We have been running a Channel Islands league, but it is proving to be very costly. We could expand that if we had a ferry schedule that worked for us.’
Andy Jehan, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Transport and Tourism Committee, said that that both islands’ hospitality and retail sectors could benefit from a successful service.
‘Anything being done to increase availability and reduce the cost of travelling between the islands has to be welcomed.
‘In terms of the hospitality industry, if we could have this in place during the shoulder months you could have people coming from Guernsey in November for the Tennerfest.
‘Local retailers do a great job at Christmas with the displays in their windows and if we could get more people coming over from Guernsey and France to do their shopping here then that could give them a bit of a boost,’ he added.
