blog.gov.jeVision: “To be a globally recognised, sustainable and enriching destination that Islanders are proud to share.”
The Vision for the Visitor Economy Strategy
Since the launch of the Visitor Economy Strategy in March 2024, stakeholders have worked together to develop an action plan for this year and the remaining term of this government.
The plan, which has just been published, has been co-developed with members of the Visitor Economy Steering Group (VESG) and the actions sit across key delivery stakeholders, including Visit Jersey, Ports of Jersey, industry and government, who sit on the VESG.
Given the broad and ambitious nature of the strategy, which is designed to transcend governments and cover the long-term evolution of the sector, a delivery plan is needed to organise and coordinate actions that are to be carried out in the current Government’s term.
The actions and projects included in the plan focus not only on demand generation and marketing the Island to visitors, which Visit Jersey continues to carry out as part of its core functions, but also cover supply side issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure a sustainable future for the sector.
The Visitor Economy Ecosystem
A thriving and sustainable destination relies upon management of all aspects of the visitor economy ecosystem, and consideration and engagement with all the stakeholders involved, including visitors, businesses, the natural environment and the local community.
The delivery plan therefore includes actions relating to the physical infrastructure and product, such as accommodation, harbours and airport, and attractions; customer facing elements including visitor information services, people and digitalisation; and actions relating to creating a regulatory environment that is enabling and provides a solid basis in which businesses can function.
Progress so far
Good progress has already been made on many of the actions, including collaborative working between partners to address the customer experience as well as through Government making a number of regulatory changes designed to facilitate investment and innovation in accommodation and begin to remove barriers to business.
- A pop-up visitor information centre has been created in the ground floor area of the Jersey Museum providing visitor support in-person and via phone, email, and livechat seven days per week. The visitor information centre is operated by Visit Jersey, working collaboratively with Jersey Heritage, and plans are already underway to establish a more permanent presence in the space.
- Work has begun to transform the arrival space at Jersey Airport into a welcoming, engaging and informative experience for passengers. A series of large-scale Visit Jersey murals showing stunning aerial photography of the island have been installed throughout the arrivals and baggage area, highlighting sites of interest and their proximity to the airport. To further improve the customer experience, a new digital screen in baggage reclaim will show live bus departures from the airport. And newly branded map and visitors guide stands are also conveniently located next to the transport information area to help visitors plan before they leave the airport.
- Floating Pod accommodation units to be installed in the St Helier Marina by Ports of Jersey have received planning permission and a supplier has been identified, and these should be installed from October 2024.
- Market testing for the development of visitor accommodation at the La Folie site has been completed, with good market interest and engagement received.
- An amendment to Planning Law (General Development (Jersey) Order 2011) was made in March 2024 by the Minister for the Environment enabling home-owners to rent homes as short-term holiday lets for up to 90 days the need for planning permission. Link to decision
- Amendments to the Tourism (General Provisions) Order 1990 were made in March by the Minister for Sustainable Economic Development to remove spatial standards to allow more flexibility in accommodation development. Link to decision
- A route development strategy has been developed by Ports of Jersey which can be used to inform marketing decisions as well as forecast future need and targets for visitor accommodation.
- Visit Jersey launched a new campaign, Where Sea Meets Soul, which reached a total audience of 14.2 million people. The campaign also resulted in a +74% increase in direct traffic to Jersey.com (year-on-year for the period of March-May) and achieved over 60,000 partner referrals, surpassing partner referrals for all previous campaigns.
Key to continued successful delivery will be the collaboration between stakeholders, as well as between different Ministers and government departments and we will continue to foster relationships and encourage collaborative working as set out in the strategy under objective Number 8 (“Working Together”).
This will be coordinated through the VESG which meets quarterly. Updates on progress will be provided via the minutes of those meetings with are shared on Visit Jersey and Government websites.