Jersey Tourism's Christmas Carol

With apologies to the composers of Good King Wenceslas!

Good King Ozouf last spoke out
At the Tourism drinks do
When the trade stood round about
Red of cheek and squiffo
Brightly spoke he of next year
Though GST is looming
‘Let us be of good cheer,
For our industry is blooming.’

‘Hither, Mike King, stand by me
To stop them from rebelling.
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?’
‘Sire, his name is Julian Green
He lives up at the airport.
Where there are no taxi cabs
Or low cost flights to Europe.’

‘Bring me cruise ships by the score,
Bring me golf courses hither.
Thou and I must make sure
Jersey Tourism delivers.’
King and Ozouf forth they went
Forth they went together
Riding on a Battle float
Provided by tax-payers

‘Sire, hotels are empty now
And the mood grows darker.
Arrivals are down, I know not why,
I can go no longer.’
‘Stay with me, Welshman proud
For I know what to do
We’ll attract the Cosmo. crowd
To start us off anew.’

In his master’s steps Mike trod,
‘Tho uncertain of his plan.
Crossed his fingers and thanked God
it’s not The Isle of Man!
Therefore, Jersey men, be sure
Hotel- or guest-house owning
The future is in your hands
So stop your b***dy moaning!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a blogging good 2007!

Fort Regent re-development is favoured option for new Conference Centre

The results of the first industry poll are in. I asked for your preference when it came to a new conference centre for Jersey. An overwhelming majority - 73% in fact - are in favour of the re-development of Fort Regent. Only 9% thought a new centre on The Waterfront was a good idea.

I have to confess to being slightly surprised at the level of support for the re-development of Fort Regent. OK - it's certainly got the space and it is the cheaper option. But can we successfully overcome the access issues & how do we deal with the strong voice of the local sportsmen & women who believe the Fort should be retained exclusively for the use of islanders in pursuit of their favourite leisure activity?

A few years ago I was a member of the Jersey Conference Bureau board and in that time a study was carried out into the merits of converting the upper level of the rotunda into a conference centre. If I remember correctly the cost of the project was about £8m. The problem was(as usual) where was the money going to come from. In a period of cost squeezing, The States simply would not stump up the cash, unless there was a really strong case for doing so. Especially when they could incur the wrath of their own electorate for changing the use of the building to the detriment of islanders.

At least there is pretty high level of consensus within the industry as to what should be done. So perhaps it's time to dig out those old plans and look again at Fort Regent. I believe we need a modern conference centre - and we need it sooner rather than later.

Thanks to those of you who voted in the Conference Centre poll. There'll be another one soon. If there's a subject you would like to see put to the industry's vote then why not let me know - just add a comment to this post.

Visitor numbers are no longer important?!

Last Thursday it was all aboard the bus tour, courtesy of Tantivy, for the frozen north to enjoy lunch at Simon Dufty's Le Frere and listen to the Minister for 'Finance Industry Development' expound on how he sees the future for tourism (one of the other industries that he has to show interest in) at the Jersey Hospitality Association's quarterly forum.

As predicted in a previous blog, this time next year we will no longer have Jersey Tourism in it's current form. Locum, who recently presented their report on where the industry needs to be heading have now been asked to review the Tourism department and recommend alternative structures and funding. Asked how he saw the department operating in the future Ozouf wouldn't pre-empt Locum's report. But he gave a clear idea of his own vision by suggesting that the Jersey Finance PPP model worked very well. Trouble is that the funding works on £1.00 from government for every £4.00 from the industry which is simply not going to work in Tourism. Anyway let's hope it's a reasonably swift process - if only to keep the Tourism team focused on the key task - trying to rebuild our industry.

Which brings me to the other key point from Ozouf's speech. Apparently, visitor numbers are no longer important and we need to focus on other measures of success, such as visitor spend! So, by this I assume he means it doesn't matter if we lose a few thousand more visitors as long as the few remaining visitors who do come, spend a lot.

Sorry Senator, you're wrong. Volume is important. How do you think we are going to continue to attract airlines to fly here if there are no passengers to travel on their planes? Critical mass is, well critical if we are to maintain the links and that means keeping the 'bums in seats' as high as we can.

Anyhow, Ozouf promised that the new targets for 2007 will be released to the industry in a couple of weeks. I await with interest to see what they are. Since it's Cosmopolitans we are looking for - perhaps we'll be measuring the numbers of copies of GQ & Harpers we sell in the newsagents!

By the way, if volume is not important, why this time last year were the Tourism department shouting from the roof tops that visitor numbers had slightly increased? But I suppose you only shout when the news is good.

Brown doubles air tax - Jersey becomes even less competitive

The UK's Prime Minister in waiting, Gordon Brown, has dealt a blow to air travellers today by announcing that APD (Air Passenger Duty) for short haul flights will double from £5.00 to £10.00 from February 2007. On the face of it a fiver doesn't sound too bad - on average fares will only increase by 7% for short haul journeys. The problem is that it's the same charge whether you are flying for 35 minutes from London to Jersey, or 4 hours to Athens! I'm not an environmental expert, but surely anyone can see that there is a slight discrepancy here.

Ticket prices to Jersey, which are lower than to many other European destinations, will be hit by a much higher overall percentage increase - adding to the already uncompetitive Jersey landing charges.

I'm all in favour of government taking steps to address carbon emissions, but surely there should be a link between distance travelled (and therefore fuel burned) and the tax paid.

Conference & Event Centre - You decide!

In my previous post regarding 4 & 5 star hotels, I highlighted the lack of a modern Conference & Events Centre as a disadvantage for Jersey when competing for the lucrative meetings and events market. There are different options available here - including the redevelopment of Fort Regent or the creation of a new landmark building on the Waterfront.

In order to get an idea of the opinion of the industry, I would be really pleased if you would cast your vote in the poll on the right hand side of this page. It only takes a second to vote, so please do so. You can also instantly see how the vote is progressing, by clicking on the results button.

Depending on the response, I'll continue to use this method to gauge opinion on key subjects. Of course, in addition to voting, please feel free to leave feedback to this and any other posting on this site. Thanks.

Good Month/Bad Month - November

Good Month

Bureaucrats - more red tape for them to feed on than ever before. They say bureaucrats like to cut red tape.....length ways.

Fans of Wales and er...Luton as Thomsonfly announce new daily flights to both Cardiff & the home of The Hatters from May 2007.

The Atlantic Hotel - winners of an outstanding service award from a national guide. Will the Michelin man be adding his seal of approval to Ocean in 2007?

Christmas light manufacturers - St Helier challenges Blackpool's Illuminations for the highest electricity bill.

Bad Month

Scarf & glove manufacturers - Jersey records it's warmest autumn in over 100 years

Battle of Flowers Association - loses almost £100k despite receiving £190k in taxpayers money

Senator Ozouf - gets a rap over the knuckles from The States for stumping up an additional £95k for The Battle,against the advice of his own team.

The Waterfront - David Crossland withdraws from the project. Let's hope we do not lose his knowledge and expertise for future projects. We need people like DC involved in Tourism.

And finally - Hotel promotion of the year. A Sicilian hotel consortium is offering a free weekend to any couple who conceive a child at one of their hotels. The catch - the proud parents have only 8-10 months to claim their prize & have to bring their little bundle of joy with them as proof!

This completes the first week of this blog. Thanks for all your comments and feedback. Please keep checking back & forward the link to others you think may be interested.