The Guernsey Travel and Visitor Accommodation Transitional Bulletin

A new bulletin has been published by the States’ Data and Analysis team to provide information on visitors to the Islands of Guernsey and the accommodation they stayed in, as well as data on Guernsey residents’ travelling outside of the Bailiwick.

The Guernsey Travel and Visitor Accommodation Transitional Bulletin, which will be published quarterly going forward, will ensure the tourism industry benefits from more detailed information than has been possible previously. The Bulletin uses data gathered via surveys of people leaving Guernsey, alongside data submitted by visitor accommodation providers and Guernsey Ports. 

The initial report highlights a positive upward trend of post-Covid recovery in visitor numbers.

Some stand out data from quarter one 2023 includes:  

• An increase in visitors’ average length of stay in hotels - 3.2 nights in Q1 2023, up from 2.9 nights in Q1 2019.
• The total number of departing visitors dropped by 19% in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2019. The number of residents travelling off-island also reduced by 23%. This reflects a global picture where people are travelling less.
• Occupancy rates for Q1 2023 are higher than the same period in 2019. As an example, in March 2023 the occupancy of open guest accommodation sites was 39% against 31% in March 2019 (note: there have been methodological improvements in the interim which means these figures aren’t strictly comparable).
• The average net promoter score (NPS) given by visitors travelling by aeroplane or ferry was 55 percentage points. Higher scores (of 72 percentage points and 70 percentage points respectively) were given by visitors seeing friends/family and those visiting for leisure purposes than by visitors travelling for business/work/conference/training (35 percentage points). Industry standard about 50 is considered good, with above 70 being considered world class.

While there was a reduction in leisure visitors in Q1 this year versus Q1 in 2019, residents also travelled away from the Bailiwick less for leisure too. Factors for consideration include fewer holidays being taken post-Covid (either due to lost earnings during the pandemic, general travel worries or a switch to staycations), cost of living increases. Covid and also the impact of Brexit has led to fewer day trip/short stay passengers travelling in this period, resulting in Condor focusing on securing passengers with a car and therefore the longer stay market, which has proved very successful. Additionally, just over 2,000 fewer business travellers arrived in the island in Q1 this year compared to the same period in 2019.

Please see the full Bulletin here. We will share each new bulletin with you when Data and Analysis publish it every quarter.