Multiple civil servants have so far spent around 20 hours answering Freedom of Information (FoI) requests relating to money spent by VisitGuernsey at the island’s only Michelin-starred restaurant.
The tourism body spent £1,785 taking visiting journalists, an influencer, and “key stakeholders” to lunch at high-end eatery Vraic last year.
In return, the coverage resulting from those lunches is estimated to be worth around £147,000.
In responding to the first FoI, a spokesperson for the Economic Development Committee, which funds VisitGuernsey, said the marketing activity aligned with its mandate to “market and promote new tourism products and grow cruise tourism to strengthen the island’s tourism sector”.
The second FoI response gave further details about what press coverage was achieved through the marketing spend at Vraic.
This included details about social media posts seen by thousands of people, and articles published by print outlets with hundreds of thousands of readers.
The third FoI asked exactly how many articles were published as a result of the three separate group lunches at Vraic, paid for by the States last year.
The response included a detailed explanation about how social media engagement is monitored.
Express asked how much time and money had been spent answering the FoIs – which have a target response time of 20 working days.
A monetary value could not be given, but it is clear that multiple people spent time on each response – with a total time value of around 20 hours quoted.
As the average salary in Guernsey is just over £42,600, this would put the cost of processing the three FoI requests at about £500 or just under a third of the cost of the lunches at Vraic.
The political committee, the Committee Secretary, committee officers, and the States’ Executive Support Team were all involved at various stages.
Under Guernsey’s FoI code, the States can refuse to answer “voluminous or vexatious” FOI requests – although civil servants are generally expected to assist applicants in narrowing overly broad requests where possible.
It costs upwards of £155 per person to dine at Vraic – which is Guernsey’s only Michelin-starred restaurant.
No States’ Members were treated to lunch there through the three visits that VisitGuernsey arranged last year.
