Tourism body Visit Guernsey moving to public-private model

Visit Guernsey is set to move to a public-private partnership structure within two years

The body charged with promoting tourism in Guernsey plans to restructure to benefit from private funding.

Visit Guernsey is set to become a public-private partnership within two years, the politician in charge of economic development has announced.

Deputy Neil Inder argued there had been a "gradual decline" in tourism in Guernsey in recent years.

The change would see less States oversight and also see tourism businesses involved, he said.

Visit Guernsey is currently a States of Guernsey-owned enterprise run by the Committee for Economic Development.

Similar public-private systems have been in place for six years in Cornwall and seven in Jersey.

'Valuable economic sector'

The president of the Committee for Economic Development criticised how the organisation was being run over the last six years, saying it had been "formulaic", and lacked a profile of likely visitors, a defined strategy or engagement with the tourism industry.

He said: "We have to decide what we are as a destination. I don't think that work has been done."

Deputy Inder said there was a "policy commitment" among the committee's politicians to push through the change, but it could take up to two years because of required public scrutiny and internal HR matters.

Deputy Neil Inder argued the "best people" to promote tourism were businesses within the industry

He also said politicians had set up a taskforce to establish plans for Visit Guernsey going forward, with representatives of tourism businesses included.

Mr Inder said: "The best people to promote the industry is the industry and the worst people to promote it is probably politicians."

The CEO of Condor Ferries, Paul Luxon, said a similar move in Jersey had been a "great success", but required some continued government funding to support a "valuable economic sector".

"It is good and appropriate that government continues to support the marketing initiatives to get the message out why Guernsey is great," he added.

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