Tourism plan to increase Isle of Man holidaymakers to 500,000

The plan aims to increase the annual economic contribution of the visitor economy to £520m

A tourism body wants to increase the number of holidaymakers visiting the Isle of Man to 500,000 by 2032.

Visit Isle of Man's new strategy aims to capitalise on the island's coastal locations and countryside, and modernise its accommodation offering.

That includes promoting the development of back-to-nature retreats, sea cabins, sky huts and luxury glamping sites.

Enterprise Minister Alex Allinson said the targets were "ambitious but achievable".

The Our Island, Our Future visitor economy strategy 2022-2032 said the island was currently "significantly underperforming" as a holiday and short break destination.

That is something it is hoped can be reversed by expanding the types of bed spaces available, improving travel links, offering marketing grants and training hospitality staff.

Expanding the number of major events held on the island in addition to the TT and Manx Grand Prix, and capitalising on existing smaller events to attract visitors are also outlined.

'Lagging behind'

The report highlighted challenges including the "perceived" high cost of travel to the island, its "highly seasonal" holiday offer, and accommodation that is "lagging behind" competitor destinations in "quality, choice and innovation".

The island's tourism industry had been "significantly weakened" by the pandemic, which had left it "falling even further behind competitor" destinations and created issues recruiting staff, it added.

Figures from 2019, the last unrestricted holiday season for the island, showed almost 330,000 people spent around £142m visiting the island.

Previous plans to bring an additional 30,000 tourists to the island by 2023, growing the value of the sector to £159m a year were hindered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Allinson said the strategy was "firmly focused on the development of a more compelling and competitive visitor offer that will raise awareness of the Isle of Man" as a holiday destination.