Abolish Jersey Tourism, and pay up

Monday 24 March 2014

Jersey's politicians need to pay the £5.65m they promised tourism, according to a group set up to plan the industry's future.

It's one of the recommendations in the report of the Tourism Shadow Board (TSB), which has just been published, after a year's work. The TSB also call for Jersey Tourism, the Jersey Conference Bureau and the Tourism Marketing Panel to be abolished, and for them to be replaced with a new group, which would have an independent board, but still be funded by the States - provisionally known as Visit Jersey.

Their report is highly critical of Jersey Tourism, saying it lacks strategic direction, and has clearly failed in its main objective of reversing the decline in visitor numbers:

"Notwithstanding positive comments about those who work at Jersey Tourism, the overwhelming view among those whose opinions have been canvassed is that the government owned and operated model is no longer appropriate in current circumstances...Evidence has been heard from industry that the current structure is flawed in that it:

• has an aversion to risk
• lacks dynamism
• has a deficit of new ideas
• communicates poorly
• has no clearly-defined strategy".

But as well as creating Visit Jersey, the Board says the States should finally give the industry the £10m of funding it promised in 2002 to the Tourism Development Fund (TDF). So far, less than half of that money has been forthcoming. Their report says the funding shortage, "...is easily perceived as evidence of a lack of wholehearted commitment to the role of tourism as a vital element of the overall economic mix", and that the balance should be paid in a "measured, but timely way".

Finally, the TSB report calls for the whole island to get behind the tourism industry, in what it terms 'a new deal':

"Success demands nothing less than a new deal; an all-Island commitment to the principle that tourism is a vital part of the Island’s economy and its social fabric, not just now, but for the forseeable future. Every part of government must be prepared to acknowledge the importance of tourism and consideration must be given to possible consequential benefits or detriments to tourism in States of Jersey policies".