While welcoming the news of an upsurge in visitors from France, Guernsey’s Economic Development President is also keen to ensure talks continue with Jersey to safeguard the inter-island ferry services.
Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller said the latest visitor statistics prove Guernsey’s strengthened position with France, but she’s also keen to preserve the “business, cultural, and sporting ties” that we share with Jersey.
She was commenting after the release of the latest tourism stats, which show around 12,000 people have visited Guernsey from France this year.
This is largely being attributed to the new Brittany Ferries service which offers day trips from St Malo to here, and onward sailings to the UK, before return sailings from England, to France, via here later in the day.
However, when Guernsey signed a contract with Brittany Ferries and Jersey went with DFDS, the regular inter-island sailings were lost.
They’ve been replaced by a daily foot passenger service operated by Chad Murray’s Islands Unlimited, and a weekly vehicle and passenger service offered by Brittany Ferries on Wednesdays and DFDS on Mondays.
The latest tourism data shows there was an increase of more than 5,000 French tourists visiting Guernsey during this year’s spring months, compared to last year.
This is said to have helped to “largely offset a decrease in ferry visitors from Jersey during this period, resulting from changes in inter- island services”.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller also says the data proves that the States was right to sign a ferry contract with Brittany Ferries, but she remains keen to preserve the inter-island links too
“This latest data shows that the previous Committee’s decision to appoint Brittany Ferries has helped strengthen Guernsey’s ties with France, which is visible through the substantial increase in French visitors in Q2,” she said.
“While inter-island connectivity was reduced during this period, we’ve worked to support the reestablishment of a regular inter-island ferry service through Islands Unlimited, which started operating in June – and we look forward to witnessing the number of visitors from our neighbouring Channel Island increase again during Q3.
“We also continue to engage in discussions with Jersey and DFDS to ensure a reciprocal rotation as we know it’s important for both of our communities – thanks to the strength of our business, cultural, and sporting ties.”