This Is Guernsey

By Matthew Smith

Is Sark’s visitor economy diminishing and does it need rejuvenation? Matthew Smith of Sark Tourism looks at the statistics

RECENTLY, there has been considerable discussion of Sark’s ‘declining’ tourism industry and significant coverage given to the need to ‘regenerate’ it.

Unfortunately, both statements ignore the fact that for the last few years the number of people visiting the island has been increasing.

Figures for passengers arriving from Guernsey have remained virtually constant for the last four years and the start of a direct Jersey service has boosted the total considerably in the last three years.

However, the number of visitors is governed by the weather and it does not take many boat cancellations to have a big impact.

No manner of investment or rejuvenation can do anything about the state of the sea, nor improve the short length of the tourism season.

The notion that the industry is in decline is a question of perception.

Without postcode data, we are unable to tell whether the number of repeat visitors is increasing, how many ‘local’ (Jersey or Guernsey) visitors come to Sark and how often.

Sark is an awkward place to visit and is far from inexpensive.

Like Guernsey, it is pointless harking back to the ‘glory days’ of mass tourism, but I would argue that Sark’s appeal has never been greater.

Our biggest problem is not encouraging interest in the island and generating a desire to visit, but getting people to make the effort and come.

Looking at the figures on our website, during the last four weeks more than 13,000 people have visited it and looked at more than 124,000 pages, spending an average of four minutes 39 seconds reading about Sark.

In the last six months of 2007, the site received more than 70,000 hits, 70% of which were from new people.

Each year, every Channel Island resident receives a copy of our promotional map, as does every visitor travelling to Sark with either of the shipping operators.

Further afield, we have continued our policy of magazine inserts in highly targeted niche publications.

We only have a very modest budget and so have to be extremely selective, but have worked with titles such as BBC Wildlife, WI Life and the RSPB.

The previous Sark guide was bulky to send, so this year we have launched a much improved, lighter one, slashing postage costs by half despite sending out more of them.

Later this month we will be launching an ebook version of the guide so visitors can browse it online and not wait for the postman.

But despite these initiatives, we come back to the same problem.

Interest in visiting Sark is strong, visitor numbers are not bad, yet how can we encourage more?

Something we hope will make a big difference is a new accommodation system on the website.

We have introduced a shopping-cart approach where you browse the site and view the accommodation selecting those which interest you.

Tourism still receives people’s details and sends a Sark Guide, but each of the selected accommodation providers also receives an email with the contact details for the potential visitor.

They can then follow up this lead if they choose and, hopefully, encourage the person to stay.

If Sark was a single business entity, it would be infinitely easier to encourage tourism, but it would be a poorer destination.

The range of accommodation is excellent, but in the past we have not looked at visitor enquiries as potential business leads and ensured they were followed up.

This new system should encourage more bookings.

Hopefully 2008 will prove to be an even more positive year for Sark.

Let’s just hope the sun shines.