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!