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?