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?

Heathrow subsidy remains a secret. So who's next for a hand-out?

Whilst the great and the good of Jersey's tourism industry enjoy a trip round the Bay (of Biscay) aboard BMI's equivalent of the Saucy Sue, Senator Ozouf has confirmed that the subsidy provided by tax-payers to secure BMI on the Heathrow route will remain a state secret.

No surprise there then! The fact that it is being kept a secret, leads one to conclude that the amount involved is so big, that if it were revealed it would cause huge repercussions. So we wait to see if Flybe's challenge to the competition authorities both here and in the UK has any effect. Meanwhile, now that the skies have been opened from Heathrow to the US, I wonder how long BMI will want to keep flying to Jersey when they could use their slots for far more profitable routes across The Pond.

So who's next for a state handout? I expect an announcement within the next couple of weeks regarding the launch of new routes to the Continent. I would not be surprised if these are to Paris & Zurich - as these were the routes that were the last to disappear a few years ago and provide the only real chance of achieving a decent commercial result. And who will operate these routes? My guess is that the only operator who could possibly be persuaded to give it a go is a local airline - but we shall see.

It will be great to have the routes opened up. But I wonder how much they will receive from the States incentive pot? Unfortunately, we'll never know.

Jersey's Hanky Panky Hotel

Today, I looked out of my office window overlooking the old bus depot and scanned the building site that is slowly becoming the new Royal Yacht Hotel. As I did so I heard Lyndon Farnham, who used to be the government’s head of Jersey Tourism and is now a director of the company developing this hotel, announce on the radio that the development was now valued at £26million.

2 years ago, when planning approved the development, the cost was £18million – but I suppose that’s Jersey inflation for you!

Their website doesn’t leave much to the imagination with images of lace knickers, dripping cream and feathers coupled with phrases such as ’relight your most indulgent desires’. But in case you’ve missed the point, there’s a ‘Hanky Panky’ package for you to book, complete with ‘seductive nibble selection’. As Leslie Philips would say, ‘Ding –dong!’

More interestingly, Lyndon suggested that his hotel, together with the other spa hotels in Jersey, will make the island one of the most ‘keenly occupied’ spa areas in Europe. He couldn’t think of anywhere other than Jersey, that had more spas within an area of 9 x 5 miles. Well, I may not be a very good judge of distance but I reckon most of the major capital cities in Europe have more spas within their central area, than Jersey will ever have.

A brave sentiment - but bravery is probably needed in large doses, given the size of this investment. The Yacht will need to achieve a very high occupancy of those 110 rooms to deliver an acceptable return on a £26million investment. And the spa market is going to be fiercely competitive as more and more of them open. I seem to remember that The Longueville Manor was going to build a spa a couple of years ago – and then did not go ahead. This could prove to have been a shrewd decision.

Good luck to the team behind The Royal Yacht- they are certainly daring to be different. In the meantime let’s hope that those foundations are good and strong – with all that hanky panky going on, they’ll need to be!

Jersey Tourism's 2007 campaign - is it working?

The short answer is we don't know. Why? Because Jersey Tourism haven't told us. 6 weeks ago the first 'Closer to Home' commercial went live. We all thought, me included, that it was a great commercial and properly targeted should deliver good results.

So how are we all doing so far? The poll I ran last month suggests that we're all having a pretty good year, but this is totally at odds with all the anecdotal evidence I have gathered. I haven't spoken to anyone who as told me that forward sales for 2007 are better than last year. On the contrary the feedback so far tells me that January was a very poor month - with sales 10-15% down on the same month in 2006. February has been better - on a par or slightly better than last year for most, but not making much impact on the January deficit.

Jersey Tourism introduced a new Forward Booking Survey for accommodation suppliers in January this year, but so far we have only seen one set of results and anyway we cannot compare data against last year so that's not much help.

Which leaves the Jersey Tourism advertising campaign. I would like to know:

• Has the target market response to the campaign been positive?
• Are enquiry levels up or down?
• What about jersey.com website visits?
• How are the various partner campaigns performing?

As an industry we are reliant upon this campaign to generate interest in coming to Jersey - interest that we can then convert into sales. So come on Tourism - talk to your industry and tell us how you see things right now.