Select a region
A delegation from Ports of Jersey will be attending the Southampton International Boat Show later this week. The Show runs from 16-25 September but will be closed on the day of HM Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
The Head of Marine Leisure, Simon Porritt, will be leading a team of five representatives from Jersey Marinas and the Jersey Ships’ Registry. The Jersey team will be working closely with their counterparts from Guernsey, Alderney and Normandy, to promote their maritime area as the finest cruising grounds in northern Europe.
Simon Porritt said: “We’ll be sharing the Yacht Harbour Association Marinas stand with our colleagues from the other Channel Islands and France to showcase our own and neighbouring ports.
“We have a strong relationship with our neighbouring marinas and we work together to market our combined area. It’s a fantastic place to sail around and we want to encourage sailors to come to our part of the world. It’s not about competing with each other, but about promoting our little corner of the globe to sailors.
“And for us, it’s an opportunity to engage with our customers, whether that’s local boat-owners who visit the Show, or regular summer visitors who drop by at our stand to see us.”
Simon says the show also gives his team a chance to meet people working in other marinas and to keep up to date with developments in the marina industry. Before the Covid pandemic, more than 5,000 boats visited Jersey each summer season. This year has seen a strong return of marine visitors, with 3,000 vessels (amounting to about 10,000 people) having visited so far.
Simon added: “We are happy to see this recovery in summer visitor numbers. It’s better than we expected, and we hope that being at the Southampton Boat Show, which is regularly attended by more than 100,000 people, will help us to re-engage with some of our previous visitors who might be thinking of coming again next year.”
Simon will also be promoting the Jersey Boat Show while in Southampton, talking to potential exhibitors about sustainability in boating and other matters of interest to the Jersey boating community.
Representatives from the Jersey Ships’ Registry will be promoting Jersey registration to vessel owners and builders.
