“Island Games millions show Jersey can still do tourism”

Thursday 09 July 2015

Thousands of visitors and millions of pounds in economic benefit – the success of last week’s NatWest Island Games shows that Jersey has a huge future as a tourism destination.

That’s the view of Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham, who plans to set up Events Jersey – an agency dedicated to attracting events and festivals and bringing over thousands more visitors for sport or culture.

“Hopefully this will give us the confidence to say ‘let’s build on it’,” said the Senator.

“I am setting up an ‘Events Jersey’ model whose job will be purely to market Jersey on the festivals and events front.

“We have got to aim higher on this.”

The NatWest Island Games saw around 5,000 people visit the Island over the course of a glorious week of sport, taking in 14 sports. Senator Farnham – whose background is in tourism as part-owner of the Royal Yacht Hotel – says that the influx of visitors to the Island brought back memories of the heyday of tourism.

And he said that the success of the games was proof that Jersey could still attract and support thousands of visitors.

“Last week is absolutely evidence that we have the ability to do this,” he said.

“And we are going to be doing more of it.

“Millions of pounds were spent in our economy in the last week because of the Island Games – and equally importantly, we now have another 5,000 ambassadors for Jersey going back to countries around the world and saying what a fantastic place this is, and some of them will be back in the future.”