Jersey.com - new site removed

Last Thursday, ten days after it went live, Jersey Tourism took the decision to remove the disastrous new jersey.com website and revert back to the old site. Today, Tourism's chief David de Carteret issued the following statement to the industry:

"I am writing to provide you with an update on the status of jersey.com following some difficulties which we have been experiencing in moving to the new site. The current position is that we are maintaining the old site whilst further work is being undertaken to ensure the quality and functionality of the new. When we are totally confident in all operational aspects, the new site will be introduced.

Unfortunately the new site still has too many bugs to risk live operation during a busy period and with the new television campaign being launched on Boxing Day it is essential that we delay to ensure that the booking engines and links to commercial sites are operational. We very much regret having had to make this decision particularly after the fanfare of the launch of the new site in November .

We are confident that the problems can be resolved and that the new site will be introduced within the next few weeks."

First of all - some credit is due to David and his team for biting the bullet and recognising the need to put the consumer first. However in due course there will need to be a full enquiry into the handling of the project which has clearly been poorly managed right from the initial decision to award the project to a London agency. At least we can be certain that visitors to jersey.com will be able to see the information they need.

Jersey.com - uninspiring & bland. £250,000 of taxpayers' money for this?!

I promised not to give an immediate reaction to the new jersey.com website, when it finally went live last Monday. This was in order to give the developers a chance to get all the new content loaded and sort out any major bugs etc.

It’s now been live for over a week and the time has come to pass judgement. In every respect the new site is a major disappointment. It is uninspiring, the indexation is confusing and illogical and in some respects the content seems completely amateurish. Here are just a few issues:

1. Imagery -where are all the fabulous images of Jersey that will inspire visitors to book? The size of the images on the site is far too small and completely uninspiring. Compare this with the VisitWales site – which uses spectacular imagery throughout the site and just makes you want to be there.


2. Maps – goodness knows who has supplied these. They are dreadful! Cramped and confused, missing huge amounts of data and poorly laid out (see image above). Yuk! Yahoo Maps provide a clear mapping service of Jersey - why not partner with them?


3. Restaurants – just a rehash of the old site’s directory. And the first restaurant on the list? No, not a lovely local restaurant serving Genuine Jersey produce, but ‘A Taste of India’!


4. Getting to Jersey – I want to fly on a scheduled flight from London Gatwick and enter the details into the search box. What do I get? Not just a list of the airlines, but a list of tour operators as well, which is totally confusing. Look at the flight search box in this Blog & provided by Skyscanner - it's a far more effective marketing tool and cost nothing!

I could go on. The worst part of this whole business is that the website cost £250,000 of valuable Tourism Development Funds. I simply cannot believe that this poorly designed site has cost that much, with rehashed content from the old site and a design that does nothing to inspire & attract potential visitors. How must the local agencies, which were overlooked for the project, be feeling now? They would have done a much better job, for a quarter of the price.

Jersey.com is our industry's most important marketing tool and according to Tourism Director, David de Carteret at the recent industry conference - 'is at the heart of everything we do'. In my view the new website is a major disappointment in both design and construction and someone should take the rap for wasting so much public money.

Has anyone got anything good to say about it? If so, let’s hear from you….

The future's bright....the future's orange!

It's been widely anticipated and much hoped for, but today it's confirmed. Easyjet are to start flying to Jersey in 2008.

Easyjet is Europe's leading low-fares airline and along with Ryanair dominate the market. For almost a decade the island has been wishing that it could be in a position to attract one of the 'big two' to fly to the island. Now that wish has come true and from March next year the famous orange livery will be touching down in Jersey.

Flights from Liverpool, (which has not previously been served by a scheduled airline) commence in March and from London Luton a month later. The Luton route will be operated by an Airbus 319 (similar to that operated by BMI on Heathrow) and Liverpool by a 737-300. The combined capacity is huge - 200,000 extra seats in the first year. Given how successful Thomsonfly were on Luton, Easyjet should have no problems taking up where they left off, whilst Liverpool provides access to a whole new market in the North West and North Wales.

Not surprisingly Philip Ozouf, Alan Maclean & Julian Green are cock-a-hoop. Of course, attracting Easyjet will not have come cheap & more incentive deals will have been struck to secure the routes, but the airline would not have agreed to start flying to Jersey unless they believed there was a strong commercial case for doing so.

Right now the key to achieving continued growth in our industry is having as much access as possible. The arrival of Easyjet is a terrific fillip to us all.

Jersey.com is launched......er, not quite

One issue, more than any other, was being talked about at the Jersey Tourism conference. We had been told that the new website that had taken £250,000 of public money to develop was going to be revealed publicly for the first time.

What we saw was definitely an anti-climax. A few screen shots of certain pages, including the new front page which is now being shared with Business Development and details of how Jersey Tourism plan to start generating revenue from the site through commission charges and affinity schemes. The new commercial face of Tourism as it prepares to become a PPP.

It was a big disappointment for many who were looking forward to seeing the new look to our industry’s most important marketing tool. The site is still not live but can be seen in a beta site – check it out by clicking here. I’ll reserve judgement for the time being and wait until it is properly launched.

'Green' is the word at Tourism Conference

On November 8th, the industry gathered once again to hear from the Jersey Tourism marketing team and others about the results of the 2007 campaign and the plans for 2008. It was a special day for this blog, as it was the same event last year that resulted in the first post.

Last year, I was eulogising over the performance of Sunara Spires of Jersey Tourism’s advertising agency, Communiqué. This year she was back again, but this time had a less prominent part to play. Needless to say, Simon le Huray and his colleagues had plenty to sing about – with an increase in visitors for the first time in over a decade. Although one swallow does not make a summer, they have every right to be pleased with this positive development.

However, whilst not ignoring the role of the TV campaign, we have to look elsewhere for the key reason for the increase. Step up to the plate, the star of this year’s conference – Jersey Airport's Director, Julian Green. Here is a man in charge of his brief, who understands that the current key driver behind the growth in visitors is the frequency and availability of flights to Jersey.

It’s a truism – if visitors cannot get here, they cannot stay here. Julian and his team managed to deliver more flights, from more airports than ever before and with low-cost availability in the market throughout the summer, we have finally been able to compete properly in the late market. So let’s recognise that fact and make sure that whilst these airlines exist, incentives continue to be available to encourage them to open new routes to Jersey.

From one ‘Green’ to another and a quick word of support for Andrea Nicholas of the Green Tourism Business Scheme who had the graveyard slot at the end of the conference. I hope that many businesses will become involved in this scheme. As The Independent travel editor, Simon Calder pointed out – Jersey was one of the first destinations to be awarded Green Destination status and we need to make sure we keep ahead of the pack, as the environment continues to become a bigger and bigger issue in the tourism industry.

Of course, these two Green's don't sit that comfortably together - aircraft are definitely not environmentally friendly. But, place Jersey into a global context, then flying here from the UK creates a much smaller carbon footprint than a holiday in Majorca, which creates 5 times as much CO2. To see how much CO2 is generated on a particular air route visit Terrapass.com.

£6 million to invest. Art Gallery or Conference Centre?

I know where I would put my money.

Last Saturday the Jersey Evening Post revealed that it would cost £5-6 million to build a new art gallery at The Weighbridge. On top of that it is suggested that there will be an annual running cost of up to £500k. And would you pay £10 to visit the attraction? No – nor would I! Surely Jersey doesn’t need its own art gallery? We have some fabulous works (such as this depiction of Mont Orgueil by Ian Rolls). However there are plenty of existing sites for displaying art, including existing locations such as The Barreau Le Maistre Art Gallery at The Jersey Museum. The gallery will be too small to attract exhibitions from elsewhere - the cost of transporting and insuring collections versus the likely size of audience simply won’t add up.

Now those that read this blog regularly will know that a while ago I advocated the building of a new conference & events centre to compete with the myriad of new venues across the UK. Fort Regent is simply no longer good enough and with so many new 4 star hotel rooms, the 500-1000 delegate conference market would prove extremely helpful to the whole industry. It would also provide a smart new venue for islanders to enjoy concerts and other large-scale events.

I won’t go back over all the old arguments – read about them here. In the past the idea has been rejected for not providing a big enough return on investment. Well, a plea to our politicians – look at the commercial arguments for a new conference & events centre over an art gallery before you sign away £6 million.

Flybe takes a pop at Economic Development

An 8 page ‘Flybe - aren’t we wonderful’ supplement fell out of the Jersey Evening Post last night. Basically it’s an advertorial (I hate that word) supplement designed to inform us about all the new routes and destinations Flybe are serving and encourage us to fly with them more frequently.

But on the front page of the supplement, Flybe’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mike Rutter could not resist taking a pop at Jersey’s Economic Development Department's policy of handing out incentives to airlines to come and fly here. Their argument is that public money is being handed out in increasingly large amounts to airlines with no accountability and no long term commitment to the island.

Of course, the recent decision by Thomsonfly to stop flying to Jersey supports their argument and to be fair, they have always been consistent about it. Thomsonfly started flights to Jersey 4 years ago – presumably attracted partly by incentives for new route development. Nobody could predict that the airline’s parent company – TUI - would acquire other airlines and rationalise their fleet to only operate aircraft that cannot land in Jersey (the reason given for their withdrawal).

Of course, there is still the Heathrow subsidy that Flybe can point to. We may never know how much has been forked out by government to secure the route, but let’s hope that BMI show greater commitment than Thomsonfly have been able to. They are facing huge increases in landing fees at Heathrow from April next year of RPI + 7.5% which will put even more pressure on the viability of the route.

In the meantime, Flybe keep on flying and the tourism industry needs to recognise their commitment to Jersey. Let’s just hope they don’t get taken over by some larger airline who would rather use their UK airport slots for more profitable routes!

British Airways - it's a wipe out

Bad news arrived last week for surfers across the world, as the UK's national flag carrier British Airways issued a world-wide blanket ban on the carriage of surf boards. The ban, which is effective from 6th November will have a big impact on Jersey's surfing community and not help the island's tourism industry in the cause to attract more European and World surfing events to Jersey.

Not surprisingly surfing associations across the world are dismayed at the decision. The British Surfing Association with over 10,000 members has launched a petition to attempt to get the decision overturned, so far over 2500 have done so. Click here to view and sign the petition.

What can Jersey's tourism industry do about it? Well, hopefully the Economic Development Minister, Philip Ozouf along with Julian Green at Jersey Airport have already contacted British Airways to present our case. At the very least we should be trying to get an exemption on the Gatwick - Jersey route so that surfers can then connect to and from airlines that are still surfer-friendly.

If the ban is not overturned, then surfers will need to look elsewhere. Flybe charge £20.00, whilst bmi do not charge - but both airlines only take the boards subject to space allowing, so no guarantee you'll arrive with your surfboard anyway!

Bed Jumping - the latest craze sweeping the world!

It's Friday so I reckon it's OK for a bit of silliness. It's also the day after the Jersey Hospitality Association's 50th Anniversary Dinner (well done Gerald and everyone for organising a great evening!). I was feeling a bit the worse for wear, until someone introduced me to this website bedjump.com.

The website address is self-explanatory. For example this image was taken at The Heathman Hotel in Portland, Oregon. There are some great images and stories on this site.

This could become a global craze. I'm away on business next week - just might give it a go!

August bed nights static - and tourists booking later

The visitor stats for August are a bit like Jonny Wilkinson's kicking -mixed. The figures are now published (you can view them by clicking here) and at first sight they make for quite encouraging reading. Volume is up 3.7% on 2007 for the month of August and cumulatively for the year up by about 5000 visitors - or just under 2%.

Two points to note however. Firstly the average length of stay has dropped by 3% to 5.48 nights. So if you look at visitor nights, there has been virtually no increase at all. On top of this, the number booking less than 1 month ahead increased from 29% to 34% in August - a pretty dramatic increase in one year. At the same time those booking more than 3 months in advance dropped to 38%. I wonder how long it will be before these two figures cross over?

The fact that Jersey is fast becoming a short break destination, means that we have to adapt our business to deal with a short lead time for bookings and shorter stays. This drives two things - a higher cost per guest and more creative tactical marketing. It also underlines the importance of low cost airlines - much of the last-minute revenue will have been driven by the low fares from the likes of Thomsonfly.

A couple of encouraging signs from August. First time visitors grew by 1% and the average age of staying visitors dropped by 1 year - to 50! At least these stats are moving in the right direction!

September arrival figures are also out and show an increase of just over 1% - it will be interesting to see how these transcribe into staying visitors. As for October - I get the distinct impression that it's proving to be a tough month. Blame the poor summer, the credit crunch or whatever you like, but I reckon numbers are down on last year. We'll see soon enough.

Thomsonfly - we're not smiling

I thought it was all going too smoothly for Julian Green and his team at Jersey Airport.

After a year that saw a number of new routes & significant growth in passenger numbers, we've been brought down to earth with a bump by the news that Thomsonfly are to cease operating from Doncaster, Luton & Cardiff from March 2008. This will leave Coventry as the only route operated by the airline - and who knows for how much longer.

This is disastrous for Jersey's tourism industry on 2 counts. First Thomsonfly achieved significant growth in volumes this year, with a total of over 120,000 passengers carried to/from Jersey. The airline had built up a 12% share of the market - and now it will all but disappear. More importantly, in my opinion, Thomsonfly led the market in bringing low cost fares to the island. Not just a few seats on each flight, but a significant proportion of the aircraft's capacity was sold at low fares and often these fares were available right up to departure.

As we know, this summer's weather was one of the poorest for many years, but despite that late bookings for July & August were stronger than ever. It is my belief (and that of others I have spoken to) that this demand was being driven by Thomsonfly and other airlines who were strongly promoting Jersey in their advertising as a low-cost destination - in effect doing the tactical marketing job for the island. The fact that visitors could still book fares of £70.00 or less return in peak season was a major factor in encouraging them to visit Jersey thi summer.

So now Thomsonfly are flying off to sunnier climes, what can Julian and his team do to secure an alternative operator on these routes? I am sure the Airport team will be working hard on this but the key is that whoever is persuaded (or incentivised!) to do so, is committed to providing low fares.

HD Ferries Vs Condor Ferries. The story continues......

It's still very messy down at the docks, with HD Ferries this week announcing that it would be suspending it's service to St Malo for the winter and at the same time taking steps to sue Condor Ferries for describing their operation as 'low safety'.

Rob Provan, Chief Executive of Condor Ferries released the statement back on 3rd August, following a collision between one of their high-speed vessels and HD1. This was not the first such incident and you can sense the frustration in the words used in the press release. You can read the original statement in full by clicking here.

Why it has taken 2 months for Chris Howe-Davies, HD's Chairman, to decide to sue Condor I don't fully understand. Perhaps he has had other priorities - namely trying to keep his vessel sailing under very heavy restrictions laid down by both the St Malo & Jersey port authorities. Nonetheless HD's statement (click here to read it) issued this week clearly demonstrates that they are not prepared to surrender the route as a result of what they see as bullying tactics by both Condor and the port authorities.

Which brings us to the suspension of services. This has been presented as a decision created by the incessant demands of 'stakeholders' that prevent them operating the service they would like. Of course cynics would suggest that the decision has as much to do with the fact that the winter period is very unprofitable and there could well be problems with weather affecting sailings and creating more image problems for the company.

One thing is for sure, HD have brought lower fares to the St Malo - Jersey route and when the vessel has been operating, there is little to differentiate between the two companies in terms of service. If they can sort their operational problems out and come back in March with all four engines working and the highest level of seamanship, then they might just be able to survive.

In the meantime, we'll see whether their threat to sue Condor makes it to court. This sorry tale could become as long as a Harry Potter novel!

Radisson - who's in charge?

What on earth is happening at the new Radisson? One day we are told by the management of the hotel that it will not be opening until just before Christmas. The following day the owners of the hotel come out and refuted this claim, insisting that the hotel will be open in the first week of November.

Apparently the construction team are working overtime to ensure the hotel is finished for handover in October and the owners, headed by Ted Clucas, are insistent that the hotel will open in November. It appears that the statement from the hotel's sales and marketing director, Lisa Stewart, was not agreed with the owners and not surprisingly they are furious that the hotel management announced a change in opening date without their approval.

However, it does beg the question who is actually running the hotel? Normally hotel owners who have signed over the management to another company, do not get involved in the day to day management of the business. Surely the team at the coal face, headed by General Manager Jonathan Huglin, are in the best position to judge when they will be ready to open their doors to paying guests. If this PR cock-up is an example of the relationship twixt owner and manager, then good luck to the team when the hotel does get going!

Think Strawberries - the secret to creating a service culture

There's a seven letter word that is that heart of everything we do in this industry. S E R V I C E.

The fact is that here in Jersey, as with so many destinations in Europe, we're not very good at it. There are many theories on why this is the case. Some argue that it's just not in the European character to smile, look our guests in the eye and satisfy their every need. Others complain that the poor pay does not attract the right calibre of people.

I think it's about leadership. If you have a strong, capable owner/manager who can inspire his or her team then you are more than 50% of the way to achieving your goal. This week I came across a guy who understood all about service and leadership. His name was James Levinson and for several years he ran the New York Plaza and turned it from a loss-making hotel into a hugely successful and profitable enterprise.

How did he achieve this? Well, you can read how. In 1973 at the end of his tenure as CEO of the Plaza, he gave a speech to the American Marketing Association. This hilarious speech describes how he turned the 1400 employees in the hotel into a highly motivated sales team using a programme called 'Think Strawberries'. His approach was to make every single member of staff, from the laundry to the front desk to think and act as if they were hosting a guest in their own home. Over the year's Levinson's approach has been used as a basis for many hospitality businesses training programmes.

I urge you read it - click here to see a transcript. I defy you not to find an idea that you can use in your own business to improve your service standards. Good luck!

Jersey Festivals & Events - are we investing wisely?

Today heralds one of the biggest annual events of the year - The Jersey International Air Display. This magnificent spectacle is one of the last free air shows in Europe and features an extraordinary range of aircraft. It is probably the biggest event of the year in Jersey -watched by more people than even the Battle of Flowers and is now so popular that hotels can virtually guarantee to be full on the back of it.

The show costs almost £250,000 to stage and yesterday the organiser of the event, Mike Higgins, announced that there is a £20,000 shortfall in funding this year. Jersey Tourism put in £100,000 towards the event - a big chunk of their £640,000 event budget. It raises the question as to where the rest of the money goes and how wisely it is invested.

Reading the 2006 Visitor Survey, only 1% of visitors stated that the main purpose of their visit was to attend a festival or event. Even when you take secondary purposes into account, it only rises to 6%. The specific question is asked in the survey: 'Was you decision to visit Jersey influenced at all by a wish to attend any festival or event?' Only 1 person in 8 stated that it was - and this figure must be heavily skewed by The Battle of Flowers & the Air Display

Roughly a third of Tourism's event budget goes to support these two main events. So that leaves around £400k for all the rest - from Walking Weeks to Food Festivals, sports events to Jersey Live. There must be over 50 taking place throughout the year. So how many visitors participate in these events and do they really encourage more visitors to the island? Once again the visitor survey suggests very few - only 8% in 2006 indicated that they had attend a festival or event during their stay.

With further budget cuts in the pipeline, Jersey Tourism are going to have to withdraw support for more small-scale events and focus their attention on the big wins. This makes sense as it is the major events that help put Jersey on the map and attract more visitors. Whilst it's nice to have all the others, their pulling power simply does not justify the investment.

In my opinion we need something big in April or May - but what? There have been plenty of ideas in the past focusing on our maritime heritage, the arts or some big sports event. What about bringing a leg of the Red Bull Air Race here? Perfect for St Aubin's Bay. If you've got an idea why not post a comment here?

Latest score update: Airport 3 : Harbour 0

Not content with announcing one new route in a week, there's more good news from Jersey Airport today. Jet2.com are to start direct services between Jersey & Leeds/Bradford from 25 May 2008. The service will operate 3 days a week (Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday) until 26 October. Fares start from just £28.99 one way and are on sale now. So yet another new low-cost route starts up - and hints of more to come from Jersey Airport Director, Julian Green.

Meanwhile, doom piles upon gloom down at the harbour. Poor old HD Ferries are in trouble again - this time with the French authorities. Apparently a spot check by the Affaires Maritimes on Tuesday revealed 'deficiencies' and the vessel is now in St Malo along with the company's CEO, Chris Howe-Davies to try and resolve the matter.

All HD services are cancelled until at least Friday causing yet more inconvenience to passengers. The impact of all these issues on their forward sales must be dramatic - most people I speak to will not book with the company because of the risk of not travelling.

In the meantime, Condor must be quietly rubbing their hands together with glee. They believe that the vessel HD are using is not capable of operating the route & is a risk (as it almost proved to be on at least two occasions this summer). They may well be right, but as someone commented today, whilst a day return with their car on HD costs £99 - Condor wanted over £200 for the same journey. The route needs competition - but it also needs robust, dependable & safe operators.

Latest score: Jersey Airport 2 : Jersey Harbour 0

More good news from Jersey Airport this week – another new route launches this Saturday and there’s increased capacity on another from next year. Meanwhile the July passenger figures show that arrivals from St Malo hardly grew at all – despite the arrival of HD Ferries this year.

This Saturday, Manx2 – a relatively new start up airline with ex-Rockhopper/Blue Islands chairman, Noel Hayes, at the helm – starts flights to that well-known international airport….er, Gloucester! Initially it will be weekends only, but at the end of October it will fly Friday and Sunday evenings – thereby creating a whole new short-break opportunity to and from the Cotswolds. In order to be sure that everyone knows where the airport is, they have rather grandly re-branded themselves Gloucester (M5) – and to be fair, it is well placed for getting to lots of other places. The 19 seat aircraft will also fly on from Gloucester to the Isle of Man, thereby once again providing a link between the two finance centres.

At the same time, Flybe have announced that from March next year there will be four flights a week to/from Newcastle. The growth in routes is very encouraging and apparently there are more announcements to come over the next few weeks.

While Julian Green and his team continue to achieve good things at the airport, down at the docks, it’s a different story. July’s arrival figures are out and amongst all the positive news, it was surprising to see that arrivals from St Malo had grown by less than 1000 passengers.

Remember that with HD Ferries, capacity on the route dramatically increased. Now I know that HD have had all sorts of problems and some sailings would have been cancelled due to poor weather, but even with a few days excluded the route has hardly grown at all and the market has been split between two operators. It will be interesting to see if August shows improvement – especially as the third operator, Corsaire, started last month.

GST – Exemption for the Tourism Industry

The Jersey Evening Post today carries a special 4 page supplement, commissioned by The States of Jersey, putting forward the argument for GST and explaining why it is needed.

Whilst Jersey residents brace themselves for the new tax which is to be introduced in May 2008, visitors to the island next year will be delighted to find that they will not be charged GST on their accommodation at all.

How come? Back in July, a Jersey tour operator put forward a strong case for their prices to be exempt, as they had to finalise the brochure prices before the final details of GST were agreed and would not be able to adjust these once brochures had been printed. The argument for exemption was forcibly put and resulted in the GST office agreeing to make tour operators only exempt on any bookings for 2008. This news emerged via a letter to the tour operator from the man responsible for co-ordinating the introduction of GST, Steve Lowthorpe, at the end of July.

Immediately it became clear that this decision would cause huge administrative difficulties for accommodation operators and, more importantly, was anti-competitive. The situation as it stood, meant that clients booking with a tour operator would not being charged GST, whilst those booking direct with the hotelier would have to stump up the 3%.

Once these issues had been pointed out to Steve Lowthorpe, several further meetings took place with the Jersey Hospitality Association and today we have been advised of the following by Steve Lowthorpe:

‘To provide the JHA and its members with some level of assurance I can confirm that the Minister of Treasury and Resources has agreed "in principle" to allow all bed / accommodation sales to be zero rated under the transitional arrangements of the GST law. This will be allowed for 2008 only and all such supplies will be subject to the standard rate of GST as from 1st January 2009. This decision will still need to be formalised but hopefully the content of this e-mail will provide certainty and the desired equity of treatment between hotels and tour operators.’

So, now it appears that the whole of the Jersey accommodation sector, as well as tour operators will be GST exempt. A great result for the industry who have battled hard for concessions in the past to no avail and well done to Gerald Fletcher at the JHA for his efforts. I am surprised that the Terry Le Sueur has backed down on this & wonder how other industries will react to the news. Surely there are other sectors which are in similar situations with regard to pricing for 2008?

I may even have a small wager that we could see the GST implementation date put back until January 1st 2009. The States are due to debate the law in October – so we don’t have long to wait.

HD Ferries - is patience wearing thin?

Following weeks of delays, collisions and technical problems, last weekend Jersey Harbours, finally lost their patience with HD Ferries and withdrew their licence to operate the route between Jersey and St Malo.

The vessel has been running on only 3 of its 4 engines for some time and as a result, had been experiencing difficulties in berthing in Jersey. This culminated in a fairly serious collision with a rival Condor Ferries craft in July which caused damage to the HD ferry and caused it to be withdrawn from service for some days whilst repairs were made.

Then last weekend, it happened again and this time, the harbour authorities had no choice but to suspend their licence on Friday, resulting in hundreds of passengers having to find room on Condor at the last minute. Needless to say, Condor were only too delighted to take all this business - and to charge HD clients through the nose to transfer.

Surprisingly, despite all this, the goodwill that HD Ferries has built up in a relatively short time seems to be carrying the operator through this very tricky period. Take a look at their website and see how many messages of support have been posted. It seems that Condor's monopolistic position on the UK ferry route and subsequent high fares, rankles with many. I suspect that memories also linger of the demise of the much-loved Emeraude Ferries - caused in part by Condor's marketing muscle. Recent comments by Rob Provan, Condor's MD who suggested HD Ferries vessel was not designed to operate on the St Malo route, did not help.

The good news for HD fans is that, this afternoon, they announced that the resumption of services from this Saturday morning. Let's hope they can maintain the service without further problems. It is important to have competition on this route to keep prices low - but patience will run our eventually if the service suffers further delays or cancellations.

Jersey - Nowhere land?

Yet again last weekend, I turned to the travel section of one of the national daily papers to find a fantastic article on the best places to surf in Britain – and once again there’s no mention of Jersey.

The week before there was a feature on the best places to enjoy a short break and minimise your carbon footprint. As usual there was plenty of coverage for Paris, Dublin & Amsterdam. Jersey must come to the top of the carbon-friendly pile, with a short flying time and access available by low-carbon ferries, but again the island fails to register on the travel editor’s radar.

It’s been niggling away at me for some time that Jersey, literally, seems to fall between the two stalls of ‘Britain’ and ‘Abroad’. As far as the domestic holiday scene is concerned, presumably Jersey is overlooked because it is not part of the British mainland and is not accessible by road. This despite the fact that it’s quicker to get here from most parts of the UK than it is to reach Cornwall.

When it comes to the overseas angle I can just hear these journalists saying, ‘Well Jersey isn’t really abroad is it? It’s part of Britain and not really culturally different enough.’

So how do we address this? I know Mike Tait and his team at Jersey Tourism battle hard to get our little voice heard, but it’s a tough task. We simply have to keep plugging away and reminding them that when it comes to features on the British Isles we need to be included.

Of course, sometimes, it can work in our favour. Last week Mothercare published a survey which rubbished British holiday resorts, describing them generally as a rip-off. Again, the Channel Islands were excluded – perhaps this time to our benefit.

It really is a case of ‘Nearer to France, closer to home.’ In other words floating in the middle of nowhere!

Statistics are like bikinis.......

One of the really great things about Jersey Tourism is the preponderance of statistics they make available online through their website. It’s great to be able to access all sorts of data on-line and usually the information is updated quickly and efficiently. For example June’s arrival figures are already up there – showing a healthy 3% increase overall & we should not have to wait too long to discover if this increase is matched by a rise in staying visitors.

June Arrivals

The figures also allow certain conclusions to be drawn. For example, 3756 passengers arrived from Heathrow in June. With 2 BMI flights a day and an average capacity of about 120 seats – that produces an average load factor of 52%. I wonder how happy BMI are with that figure after 3 months of operating the route? And are taxpayers seeing a return on the investment made into securing the route in the first place? We will never know because we have no idea of the size of the subsidy.

By contrast, let’s look at Luton – from where Thomsonfly started operating in May. The route provides one arrival a day, but has carried 2655 passengers. With a smaller aircraft, that’s a much more encouraging load factor of around 80%. I appreciate that there are big differences in fare levels. (I flew to Luton in May for just £40.00 return including tax), but if volume is a key requisite for tourism growth then I believe Thomsonfly should receive the bouquets. And I bet the route subsidy has cost a lot less.

Overall arrivals from London Airports are up by an impressive 12% so far this year, so that’s good news for everyone in the industry.

2006 Visitor Survey

Then there’s the latest Staying Leisure Visitor Survey – in short a very long questionnaire sent to visitors after they return home asking for their views on their stay in Jersey. At face value a good piece of work that provides useful trend analysis of visitors’ characteristics & their perceptions of Jersey.

And yet – whilst the survey tries to obtain a cross-section of visitors, there is no sampling by age range or socio-economic profiling. So if a higher proportion of questionnaires are returned by the 55+ age group this could give a very one-sided perception of the delivery of our tourist product. The survey does break down the findings by age group, but the sizes of the samples for younger age groups may be too small to be credible.

I know that First Research who produced the survey, have many years of experience in producing this report – the guys behind it used to manage the statistics unit at Jersey Tourism. The report is of extremely high quality – but in my view poses as many questions as it answers.

A US business professor, Aaron Levenstein got it about right when he said ‘Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.’ If we are going to base future investment decisions on today’s data, then we need to make sure that the numbers don’t lie.

GST - include or exclude in prices?

Last week saw an allocation of tour operators (is there a better name for a collection of these good people?) descending on Jersey to contract hotels for 2008. It just so happened that their visit coincided with the Jersey Hospitality Association's quarterly forum at which the guest speaker was the government's Goods and Services Tax guru, Steve Lowthorpe.

Leaving aside the whole issue of the tour operator margin scheme and on which elements of the package GST will be charged, the main gripe seemed to revolve around the lack of time to prepare. We were promised a full 12 months to deal with the implementation of the tax, but the issue is from what date the clock started ticking. Government says April because that's when the GST law was passed - even though neither the actual date for implementation, nor on what basis it would be applied, had been resolved.

Anyway it looks as if April 2008 is going to be the month when GST comes in. The question is should suppliers include or exclude the tax when issuing rates to tour operators for next year? The decision is mainly down to whether or not the hotel's operating system can be programmed to apply a tax to whatever rates are loaded. If it can, then it surely makes sense to provide rates exclusive of tax, in order that it can be applied at the correct rate on the right date.

So far, operators seem happy with this approach. Has anyone had any different experience or do you have a different view?

The Royal Yacht sets sail

Congratulations to the team at The Royal Yacht on the opening of the new hotel. Despite all the delays and difficulties with completing the building work, the hotel is now open and looks great.

I was at the opening party last Tuesday (along with half of Jersey it seemed!). In fact it was so crowded that I am really looking forward to going back and having a look at the hotel when it’s quieter. What I did see, looked good and in particular the new bedrooms are impressive. Apparently, the building work has delayed the rooms opening for a few more days.

The nightclub on the ground floor is interesting. It holds 700 people, so I would imagine that the existing clubs around town will be concerned about the impact. I understand that with the exception of Saturday nights, most clubs are already struggling to attract numbers. I am also wondering what the impact of several hundred clubbers spilling out into the night at chucking-out time will be on those paying top dollar to stay in the balcony rooms at the front.

The spa also looks good, the restaurants could be good – depends on the menu and service, and I believe the bar prices are quite high. One thing’s for sure, if we ever get a summer, their al fresco area will do very well.

Thanks for a great party. It’s been a long time since I have bumped into so many members of the tourism industry in one night. It was great to catch up with everyone. So that’s one new opening down – one to go. I saw Jonathan Huglin, the GM at The Radisson walking around looking slightly aghast at the party going on. Jonathan – it’s your turn next! You’ve got a hard act to follow.

'Best Hotel in Channel Islands' Award for Pomme

Now when it comes to awards, I have always been a bit of a cynic. This is probably because I have rarely won any! Nominated plenty of times - but almost always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
However, winning is everything and last week I was proud to be present when The Pomme d'Or picked up a new award for 'Best Hotel in The Channel Islands'.

A lot of awards are decided by an individual or committee and can be a matter of subjectivity. The great thing about this award from HotelClub (one of the world's biggest online hotel booking agencies) is that the winners are chosen by hotel guests. Over 10,000 voted for their top hotel in each region of GB & Ireland and in our region, The Pomme came out top beating off competition from other hotels across the islands.

It's a great result for Luis de Oliveira and his team at the hotel and recognises all the hard work they have put in to achieve the highest standards of guest service. With the Royal Yacht and Radisson opening, the Pomme needs to be at the top of its game and this award gives the whole team a real boost.

As you can see, Luis looks pretty pleased about it. Nothing to do with the fact that he's standing next to Holly Beasley from 'Home & Away' Well she's a lot prettier than the guy on the right!

Low cost airlines - is the honeymoon over?

This week Ryanair gave a grim forecast of difficult times ahead. Load factors are down (2% last month) and profit forecasts are at best showing zero growth. As a result the airline's share price has taken a sharp downturn. Ryanair's boss, Michael O'Leary blames higher taxes and airport charges, rising interest rates and passenger frustration with security delays. Easyjet reckons concern over the climate change issue is also a factor.

I have another theory. Whilst it has never been cheaper to jet off around Europe, the novelty of low cost air travel has started to wear thin. Water-cooler chat used to revolve around how cheap you had managed to buy a ticket to Dublin or Barcelona - with a feeling of competitive one-upmanship about it. Today, with so much capacity and consistently low fares the issue is no longer about how cheap it is to fly somewhere, but how much it costs when you get there.

This was brought home to me a few weeks ago when I took the family to London for the weekend. The flights cost a ridiculously low £120.00 return for 4 of us. Indeed the low cost of the flights was the motivator to travel. But as soon as we arrived in Luton, the meter started running. Train fares to London, hotel, restaurants, theatre tickets, taxis & shopping left us with little change out of £500. Not a cheap weekend by any means.

So as the novelty of jumping on a plane for next to nothing wears off, consumers start to count the cost of the complete trip & realise that the bank balance won't take it.

What does this mean for Jersey's tourism industry? We have plenty of low cost routes now, helped by Jersey Airport's aggressive approach to route development incentives. Airlines such as Thomsonfly like flying to Jersey because it offers a quick round trip to fill mid-day slots and a low fare entry point for their marketing. But ultimately if the consumer sees beyond the hook of a cheap air fare, it will result in routes disappearing.

And O'Leary's response to the drop in demand? A price war that could last all winter and deliver even lower ticket prices - but will the customer be tempted knowing that when they reach their destination they will have to dig deep into their pockets. Time will tell.

GST - it's time to move on

The latest monthly news sheet from the Jersey Hospitality Association includes a feature on the Goods & Services Tax - attacking the government for a lack of information about its implementation and generally going back over the old arguments of the administrative burden, the inflationary impact, how our poor industry will suffer etc. etc.

Guys, it's time to move on. GST at 3% is being introduced in 2008, probably in April and will apply to all our sales. With that information we can plan our pricing for next year and take it into account when budgeting. We now need to concentrate on the challenges the tax presents on top of a 4% inflation rate.

The JHA speak of a 'crucial and delicate time for our industry'. I disagree- this is a dynamic and exciting time for our industry. Let's look at the evidence:

• 300 new hotel rooms in the 4 star sector, opening in the next 3 months.
• New air routes from Heathrow, Luton, Paris & other regional airports.
• New ferry routes from France.
• 2 Michelin star restaurants.
• The creation of an exciting new waterfront retail and leisure centre.

In the last 15 years, there has not been a better opportunity to make a noise about how Jersey has finally shed granny's cardigan and received a makeover. If Jersey Tourism cannot build sales on the back of all this, then heaven help us.

Display your menus - or get your collar felt!

Attention all restaurant, bar and hotel owners! You are possibly breaking the law and liable to a fine of up to £500 plus £50 per day for each day during which the offence continues. Why? Because you are not displaying outside your premises a copy of all your price lists and menus.

Section 50, paragraph (d) of the Licensing (Jersey) Law 1974 states: 'The holder of the licence shall keep displayed at the exterior and in close proximity to each entrance to the licensed premises normally used by the public, and in each room or other place in which meals or refreshments are normally served, in a conspicuous position where it may be seen and easily read by customers, a notice specifying the charges made for meals and refreshments, other than intoxicating liquor, served on the premises and keep every such notice displayed at the exterior of the premises illuminated where necessary for it to be easily readable by customers'

So if your hotel has a number of bars and/or restaurants you need to display a copy of each menu and bar tariff, not only at the entrance to each outlet but at the entrance to the hotel.

I carried out a random check around St Helier and I reckon at least half of licensed premises are breaking the law. So get printing - or your wallet could be £500+ lighter! You have been warned.

Recruitment - new hotels cause headaches for the rest of the industry

Now that the Radisson and Royal Yacht are getting closer to opening their doors (although I still cannot believe that the Yacht will be ready for June!), their recruitment programmes have started in earnest.

Bearing in mind the size of these hotels and the facilities they offer, there must be a requirement for roughly 300 new employees. From reservation staff to kitchen porters, waiters to housekeepers, these hotels need a lot of people to maintain their standards.

So it’s not unexpected to learn that there have already been cases of other hotels losing staff to the new kids on the block. At this stage it appears to be mainly at the managerial level – with one hotel having lost two senior members of their team to The Radisson. I am sure it won’t be long before the lower tiers of management and staff of existing hotels, are under attack.

Of course, you cannot stop people from moving companies. In particular the attraction of working for an internationally branded hotel, such as The Radisson, must be a mouth-watering prospect to many . This year, Jersey…..next year Cape Town. It means that everyone has to sharpen up their act, work even harder at keeping their teams happy and content with their lot. Nonetheless if and when hotels lose their best people to another hotel, the cost of recruiting and training their replacements is high. The problem is particularly severe within the kitchen brigade – good chefs are like gold dust at the moment.

What about the role of Jersey Recruitment in all this? They have been awarded the lucrative contract for recruiting the team at The Radisson. The issue is that this company is a division of The Jersey Hospitality Association which represents the whole hospitality industry in the island. Is it right that they should be working to fill one hotel, whilst other members suffer? I am not suggesting that Jersey Recruitment are head-hunting from within the island –that would cause them huge problems. But there is a perception out there that the JHA is acting as poacher and gamekeeper.
The next few months are going to provide some challenges for all Jersey’s hotel managers. Have you lost staff to the new hotels recently? Do you have a view?

Is it a bird? Is it a flying banana? NO - it's the new Jersey logo!

So finally, after 18 months and some £240,000, it's official. A new brand image for Jersey. The final version has hardly changed at all from the version I saw about a year ago, so I'm not sure what all the consultation achieved.

Anyway, as predicted by Senator Walker, it's a great opportunity for the critics to have a bash. Descriptions ranging from flying bananas to an oil slick (!) have already started to appear on various Jersey forums and I am sure there will be plenty more from where that came from.

I wrote about this back in January - click here to see the post - and expected to see changes from the original, but the design team have stuck firm and presumably the consultations they held with local groups did little to change their thinking.

From my point of view - it works fine. I am particularly pleased to see that 'Life Enriching' has been retained as the strap line. The fact is that this island is rich - in all senses of the world, including financially. Why should we be ashamed of that? Richness brings with it so many benefits - whether as a resident or as a visitor. You don't see Monaco trying to conceal from the world that it's a rich place - so why should we?

So well done to the team responsible. Now we need to get behind the brand and deliver on the promises suggested by 'Life Enriching'. The team that designed this brand produced New Zealand's '100% Pure' idea - if we can enjoy half the success that country has achieved from their new image, then we should be very content.

Mauritius - Sweet dreams are made of this!

Just back from two weeks holiday with the family to Mauritius - somewhere I have always wanted to go and it certainly lived up to all our expectations. Beautiful scenery; safe, clean beaches; high quality hotels; friendly people who enjoy giving good service & excellent food combining a whole range of different styles from Asian to Creole. We didn't stray far from our resort but enjoyed snorkelling on the reef and visiting some other nearby beaches. The perfect tonic.

And this is an island where tourism is really going places. Since the demise of the sugar cane industry, the tourism industry has taken on huge importance and is growing like topsy. Tourist arrivals in 2006 totalled 788,000 with almost two-thirds coming from Europe. And in the first 3 months of this year tourist arrivals are +16.6% with the UK the third biggest market for the island. The forecast for the whole of 2007 is for around 850,000 tourist arrivals. More than 25,000 local people are employed in the industry - a growth of 25% in 4 years.

New hotels are under development and airline capacity is increasing significantly with bigger aircraft and greater frequency. Later this year Virgin Atlantic start a twice-weekly service from London, adding another 900 seats a week.

We can dream of growth like that here in Jersey - or government and industry together could make it a reality. Time will tell.

Time for a break.....and some serious thinking!

I'm off on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks and needless to say I can't wait. I don't think I am the only one who needs a break either- more on this in a moment.

Firstly, let's deal with my last post, which seems to have caused some ructions. Yesterday, at the JHA lunch, Deputy Alan MacLean specifically denied that Jersey Tourism had any plans to introduce an integrated booking engine into their new website. That's great news for existing operators who I understand questioned Tourism directly about the issue. However, I actually believe an integrated booking engine is a good idea and should be explored further. In the past week, Ryanair have announced a partnership with Expedia to sell flight+hotel+ extras packages and most people in the industry, including those who have traditionally distributed product through off-line channels, agree that the future lies in online packaging where the customer can pick and choose the elements.

Anyway, I am sure this topic will be covered again in the future. Before I close I wanted to deal with another issue relating to this blog. Yesterday I was referred to (I think half-jokingly!) as a stirrer and 'Public enemy No. 1' for raising issues such as the one referred to above. It seems Jersey Tourism are upset with my approach and would rather I did not post blogs that create reactions. Even more extraordinary is that employees of Jersey Tourism are not allowed to respond to the blog, due to an edict from government. This effectively stifles debate and discussion with our major partner.

Just so that everyone understands:

1) This blog expresses my own views - it does not represent the views of any company or organisation with which I am associated.

2) I use it to raise what I believe are important and relevant issues in our industry. That does not mean that everyone else will think they are important and those that do not find the blog relevant to them, will stop reading it.

3) If people disagree with me - then say so! If your company or organisation is sufficiently paranoid to prevent you from doing so, then you can always post a response at home and you can do it anonymously.

4) Above all - I run this blog because I enjoy it. Call me a stirrer or whatever else you like, but be brave enough to post your comments here, not mutter in corners to whoever will listen.

I need a holiday. See you mid-April. Happy Easter!

Jersey Tour Operators face new competition…..from Jersey Tourism!

You may be aware that a Jersey Tourism’s website is undergoing a much needed overhaul. A new design and rebuild of such an important site does not come cheap and it was necessary for the tourism department to request funding of £250k from the Tourism Development Fund – which it was only too happy to give.

Nothing wrong with that - nowadays Tourism’s website is the industry’s most important marketing tool. The contract was duly awarded to the UK advertising agency responsible for the new ‘Live your Life’ TV campaign – despite a competitive pitch from a Jersey-based agency. This caused questions to be asked of Jersey's Tourism Minister in Jersey’s parliament – The States. You can read the details of this by clicking here.

The decision to use a UK agency is one thing. However part of Senator Ozouf’s response during questions on this matter, did reveal something new. The Minister responsible for Jersey Tourism was asked whether the website would include an integrated booking engine that would allow visitors, in addition to accommodation, to book other services such as entry tickets to attractions.

I quote directly from the transcript of his reply: “what we want is a booking engine…..that not only can you book your hotel room but you can book your visitor attraction and you can book your flight. A whole integrated booking engine is what we are trying to achieve.”

So it appears that Jersey Tourism plan to set themselves up in direct competition with existing tour operators serving Jersey. Clearly the success of their accommodation booking engine - Jerseylink - has led them to extend the service to include a full dynamic packaging service. Last year Jerseylink generated £1.5million of revenue and a tidy £100k in commission for Tourism. Presumably there could be even richer pickings if a full tour operation was established.

But is it right that the island's tourism organisation should set itself up as a tour operator in competition with the existing operators? I wonder how Preston, Premier, CITS and all the other players feel about the idea?