THE Guernsey Tourist Board is in talks with all sectors of the travel industry on the island to develop a 10-year plan to increase visitor numbers.
The industry has been divided into three groups. The first covers tour operators, carriers and hotels, the second the local visitor attractions and internal transport providers and the third the chief executives of government bodies that impact on tourism.
Tourist board chief executive Chris Brock said the aim was to come up with a strategy for a tourist industry – rather than a tourist board – for the next 10 years.
“There has been suspicion in the past about a public authority making the decisions and setting targets that might be quite unachievable,” he said.
“For instance, there is no point in the tourist board deciding to double visitor numbers if there are not enough airline seats or hotel beds to do that.
“This way we are coming up with island-wide objectives that are achievable and they will enable businesses to formulate realistic business plans.”
Meetings between the groups have been underway since March. Brock said the outcome of the talks will be released in 2000. He said the tourist board’s key objective was to increase visitor numbers from continental Europe, which sent 79,000 leisure visitors in 1998.
The island had 262,000 UK arrivals in the nine months to the end of September, a 3% increase on the same period in 1998.
Brock said he wanted to secure year-round routes between Guernsey and continental Europe as flights are currently seasonal. he added that he wanted to develop a Victor Hugo centre covering the author of Les Miserables’ life in exile on the island.