A new era of sea travel for Guernsey
Last night, the 25th of March, the Islander made its first call into St Peter Port with her new Brittany Ferries livery, heralding the start of a new era of sea travel for Guernsey.
25 March 2025
Brittany Ferries takes over the route on Friday and preparations have been underway for some months to ensure we are doing everything we can to give visitors a warm welcome.
There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. A working group including, but not exclusive to, representatives from hospitality, retail, ports and customs, was set up to focus on the visitor experience and what changes and improvements we needed to implement ahead of the 28th.
As a result, we have been working closely with Guernsey Ports on signage, developing dual language welcome and information signs about the Island which are due to go up at the Harbour terminal ahead of first passenger service on Friday. The terminal will also soon benefit from a better passenger experience with Brittany Ferries’ new café and duty-free shop.
We have also been working with the team at Essential Guernsey to develop a dual language map making it easier for visitors, in particular day trippers, to find their way into and around St Peter Port.
Inbound forward bookings for car and foot passengers are up over 2024 which is fantastic news.
UK to Guernsey car bookings are ahead by 6% compared to last year. Car bookings from France to the Island show an 14% increase, whilst foot passengers are up a massive 144% versus 2024.
An encouraging start but we must keep working hard to make sure we maximise every opportunity this new partnership presents.
We launched our joint activity with a high-profile marketing campaign on TV, promoting the Island to UK holidaymakers, this ran across the South Coast and was viewed by around one million people.
Concurrently, we are running digital display and social media campaigns and our visiting journalist programme is now underway. Brittany Ferries continue to reach out to their 500,000 customers, leveraging our position within a larger group to reach UK and French visitors.
VisitGuernsey has been integral in the ship refits, an exciting project for us, from producing maps, re-naming cabins and producing content for the onboard magazines. We now turn our attention to outreach with French visitor centres, with team exchanges planned and social media partnerships.
This week Brittany Ferries issued an update to their travel trade partners, which included a Q&A which you might also find useful.
The summer schedule comes into effect this Friday (28 March) and these are the key points:
- Direct sailings only
- Consistent timetable
- Up to six return weekly sailings from Poole to Guernsey in peak season, four outside of peak
- Overnight services from Portsmouth six days per week
- Connecting high speed sailings via Guernsey to St Malo with Condor or direct with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth
- One inter-island departure on a Wednesday, which allows for a short day trip to Jersey.
The Condor name is now being integrated into the Brittany Ferries’ family and, with that, will be refreshed travel experience with a focus on reliability, comfort, hospitality, and value.
Images are available from Brittany Ferries’ newsroom: https://brittanyferriesnewsroom.com/
