Tourism trade concerned over delayed schedules

Guernsey relies heavily on the tourism trade

Some tourism businesses are concerned about the impact of a potential delay to the publication of transport schedules for next year.

Ferry and airline schedules are yet to be released beyond March 2025.

Guernsey's government has launched a review into its airline Aurigny's operations which prevents them from releasing their summer flight schedule, meaning booking are only available up to March.

The States of Guernsey said there may be a "slight delay" due to the review - last year the schedule was published on 20 October.

Ashraf Elsergany says he only has two bookings for the whole of next summer so far

Ferry operators are currently bidding to run a service in the Channel Islands, as Condor Ferries' current agreements with Jersey and Guernsey run out shortly, with their latest sailing schedule set to end on Thursday 27 March.

Ashraf Elsergany general manager of the Saints Bay Hotel said they have only got two bookings for next summer, and believes the tourism industry relies heavily on the "word of mouth" of visitors.

He said: "If we don't have a business next year, nobody is going to talk for the following year.

"We work all together as a team and if we are not bringing any customers and we don't have any bookings, that means it's going to make everything short on the island."

'Bottom of the heap'

Andy Furniss is the managing director of Le Petit Train, a road-train that does tours around St Peter Port, and said the "future is alarmingly bleak in the fact that we don't know what is going to happen".

He said his business relies heavily on passing tourist trade: "Whilst I understand the issues that Aurigny have had, that trickles down to me sat here on the pier.

"I'm at the bottom of the heap waiting for people to arrive. If those people can't get here, I've got no trade."

Sark Shipping say over half their passengers every year are tourists from Guernsey.

Yan Milner, managing director of Sark Shipping said he was "concerned" the schedules hadn't been published.

He said: "Sark Shipping and Sark itself as a destination relies on Guernsey tourism and the amount of people visiting Guernsey.

"It could have a quite serious impact, about 60% or more of our volumes are Guernsey tourists going to Sark.

"If that reduces it makes some of our services difficult to operate because of volume and profit."

'At pace'

A spokesperson for the States of Guernsey Trading Supervisory Board said: “Aurigny’s summer schedules are usually published around the end of October, so would not normally be available yet. There may potentially be a slight delay for 2025, due to the review of the airline’s fleet resilience which has been commissioned by STSB."

They added the "review is being done at pace", and should be completed "before the end of the month".

"At worst, it will mean a delay of a couple of weeks in the release of next summer’s schedules, but we will do what we can to at least minimise that, and if possible avoid a delay altogether.”

The States have been approached for comment regarding the delays to ferry schedule publication.