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February Trade Update

Here's a roundup of our latest news

02 February 2023

Advertising the Islands of Guernsey in 2023

Our 2023 marketing campaign kicked off on 1st January and our social and digital activity has reached almost 19 million people during the month.  

You can view and download our 2023 digital assets for you to use on your own social channels from the Campaign pages on the Trade and Media website.  By using our assets, you're helping to raise Guernsey's profile by sharing content which will be familiar to potential visitors who may have seen our campaigns online and in print. 

The 2023 VisitGuernsey television advert is currently undergoing a few finishing touches before it airs in the UK from 1 March onwards. The 30-second advert, which opens with the line ‘What is that Island Feeling?’ showcases a variety of the Islands’ best cultural, culinary, and scenic highlights, focusing on authenticity, through real people doing real things.

The advert will be delivered to our target market as set out in the 2023 strategy, using data from TV providers such as Sky to ensure it is seen by the right people. The advert closes on the line ‘It’s something different, for everyone’, which, when married with the diverse number of shots within the advert – island hopping, oyster eating, Hauteville House to name a few - helps us appeal to all our target audiences.  

You can view our 2023 strategy here.

 

Now recruiting: Tourism Management Board Members

Hannah Beacom has been appointed as Chair to a new arm's length body - the Tourism Management Board. The Board will be tasked with bringing together Tourism stakeholders, both commercial and political, to develop and roll out a new Tourism Strategy for Guernsey. The Board and VisitGuernsey will work together to oversee Marketing, Product and Event strategies and plans, ensuring that they align with the Tourism Strategy for Guernsey.

Ms Beacom is now looking to appoint up to six industry experts to represent the broad interests within the industry, including the carriers, the off-island travel agents, the accommodation sector, event management, and transportation.

Closing date for applications is Monday 6th February. More details on how to apply can be found here.

Social Media Workshop

Social media is a fantastic tool for engaging with your customers, but it can a be a little bit daunting and seem time consuming. To help you get the most out of this channel, the VisitGuernsey team have put together a training workshop to answer some of the most frequently asked questions for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and even TikTok!

Jo Ferguson and Paul Belben from VisitGuernsey have recently run several taster training sessions for guides, attractions, eateries and transport providers, to help demystify some of the trickier aspects of the various channels, share tips on how to save time, boost reach, use video and hashtags, and much more.

Ian Vaudin from Donkey Taxis joined us on one of the training sessions and here’s what he had to say about the workshop:

'Jo and Paul where brilliant and the class was interesting and insightful.’

If you feel like you could benefit from a short workshop or training session, please get in touch. Or if you have any questions like ‘How to increase sales with social media promotion?’ Or, ‘Which channel should my business be on?’ we can help answer these too.

We can run the training session for any level from beginner to intermediate, and focus on specific themes like setting up an event and also take you through some of our partnership packages for paid advertising, such as social media posts to feature blogs and consumer emailers.

To register interest in booking a place on the next workshop or if you have a specific question, please contact jo.ferguson@gov.gg.

January Occupancy Survey results

We have ended January with 43% occupancy reported from the accommodation sector. This is a 2% increase on confirmed bookings compared to the beginning of the month, and a 19% increase on the figures that we have for January 2020.

We thank each and every one of you who not only fills in the survey each month, but also takes our calls at the end of the month. The information you share with us, provides valuable insight into ever changing booking patterns and helps inform the direction of our reactive digital marketing plans.

Holiday World Show Dublin

After a three-year absence, the Holiday World Show Dublin made a welcome and successful return last weekend.

The three-day event, which ran from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th January, welcomed more than 30,000 people through the doors at the RDS Simmonscourt, where they could speak to hundreds of exhibitors for personalised expert travel advice and show-only deals.

The VisitGuernsey and Aurigny partnership stand received high levels of interest, with the direct flights from Dublin proving to be a real game changer for the Irish market. There was a constant flow of visitors to the stand across all three days, with the majority showing a keen interest to visit the Islands. A number of people commented that the Islands of Guernsey have always been on their bucket list, so with direct flights now making the journey that much more convenient, will be looking to book this summer.

What was encouraging to see was that interested parties spanned multiple demographics; young families, young couples, older couples, and friendship groups all showed interest. There was also fantastic uptake in our show-only competition; participants simply had to enter their email address to win flights and a 2-night stay at the OGH, helping build our consumer database for all future mailers and offers.  

 

Guernsey Arts - A Plan for the Arts

Guernsey Arts is delighted to announce that it has today published its PLAN FOR THE ARTS, an overarching plan to 2030, including a more detailed plan to cover the initial period to 2024, which has been endorsed by the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture (ESC). The Plan sets out Action Plans based upon six core objectives - the “Creative Six” – which support several aspects of the Government Work Plan.

Guernsey Arts recognises the importance of the Arts in all its forms. Creativity leads to a vibrant cultural community with many health and well-being benefits. It is an economic enabler within Guernsey and beyond.

Read the full press release and download the overview here. 

Our German-speaking Market

VisitGuernsey will be attending a mini roadshow in Germany and Switzerland later this month, to build relationships with key operators. Sam from VisitGuernsey will be meeting our German-based PR rep Scott to meet Globalis and DERTouristik in Frankfurt, then Rolf Meier Reisen and Imbach/Vogele Reisen in Zurich.

We know from experience that the German-speaking trade market is a traditional one, which values face-to-face relationship building as well as openness, honesty, and loyalty, so feel this trip is the next step in building our relationships within the trade market to grow the offering and encourage more visitors to the Islands. We’ll provide an update on the roadshow in the next trade mailer and outline how we propose to grow the market. 

 

Visiting Journalist Programme

We already have a number of press visits scheduled for 2023, including Women and Waves, Cruise International editor Kate McGonagle and Travellers Archive from Germany as well as some exciting influencer visiting our Islands througout the year. Work is continuing to develop this programme further and we need support from local industry to offer press passes to visiting journalists to showcase all there is to offer on our Islands.

If you would like to make your business available to be part of visiting journalist itineries, please get in touch with Paul.  

 

Taxi Fares - fixed and metered charges

Following the recent taxi review and some apparent confusion around some taxis requesting a fixed fare, Traffic and Highway services have given us the following update that you may find useful:

A fixed rate can only be charged if the customer agrees to the rate in advance of the journey commencing. Also, the individual operator or company must not inform a customer that they only charge fixed rates (only private hire operators are permitted to do this). If the customer wants to pay the metered rate, the taxi operator has a legal obligation to honour this.  The main purpose for permitting taxis to operate on a private hire basis is to encourage repeat business for an individual operator or company by offering the customer a discounted rate for regular bookings. It is not so that a taxi driver can simply charge rates that are above the metered rates.

As always, we are on hand to help and support in any way we can, so if there is anything that we can help with, please do get in touch.

With thanks, the VisitGuernsey team.

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