'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!