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.