A new report on the state of the tourism industry profiles the kind of people who holiday in Guernsey. Mark Oliphant and Tom Bradshaw embark on the hunt for the typical tourist THE tourist industry is over-reliant on UK visitors.

‘There has been a reduction in Continental visitors this year and that comes on top of the decline from 2002 to 2003,’ said Dave Nussbaumer, manager of the Cobo Bay and the Hougue Fouque Hotels.

‘A lot of the people who come to the island for the first time are from Europe. They come to the islands for a family holiday and so we have to try and attract these types of people. We have to do more to attract the modern-day traveller.

‘The UK market has filled the void as much as we could have hoped and the UK air routes are now very good.’

The VisitGuernsey 2003 visitor report showed the total volume of visitors that year was 370,000.

The number of UK visitors had increased from 292,000 in 2002 to 307,000 in 2003, an increase of 5%.

Overseas visitors dropped by a third from 86,000 in 2002 to 57,000 last year.

‘We have primarily UK visitors. I would say about 75% of the visitors are from the UK and 25% from Europe, but that’s a result of the poor transport links,’ said Hotel Bon Port manager Mark Galins.

St George’s Hotel manager Davina Wallace said: ‘We have a lot of visitors from the UK and especially Southampton and Bristol, where there are good air links.’

Ambassador Hotel proprietor Rob Steen said he had a lot of visitors from the UK but also many from the Netherlands and Germany. They mainly come on organised package trips with tour operators because it is the easiest way to arrange travel.

This year’s survey revealed that between 80% and 90% of visitors were over-35.

‘The typical visitors are the empty-nesters. They are the husband and wife who have children that have left home. They want good food, good value and beautiful scenery,’ said Mr Nussbaumer.

The survey also showed that 44% came for a short trip and just 20% for their main holiday.

‘Most of our visitors come for a short break,’ said Ms Wallace.

‘The majority of people come for something like four days. We do have some people who stay for two weeks and they tend to be the regulars, but they’re the minority. It would be lovely, though, if they all stayed for that long.’

Mr Steen said many of his UK visitors came for a week or less, but many of his European ones stayed for two.

Ten times more people stay in hotels than self-catering and 34% of hotel users stay in three-star accommodation.

Mr Galins, whose hotel is three-star, said: ‘The success of the three stars is a result of the position of the four-star accommodation. St Pierre Park is in pretty poor condition at the moment and people will pay the extra only if they get a bit more.

The Old Government House is also four-star, but it’s in Town. The three-stars offer better value for money, especially for the room and the location.’

Mr Steen, whose establishment is two-star, said: ‘People find that two- and three-star accommodation is very adequate. Four- and five-star hotels will be mainly business people.’

He was surprised that, according to the report, people on average spent £62 on eating out during their stay and £42 on shopping.

Mr Steen said he expected more to be spent, but was not surprised that the average cost of accommodation was £41 per night because of his own prices, although he knew other hotels cost more.

The hoteliers all agreed that use of the Internet to book travel and accommodation was on the rise.

The report showed that the use of travel agents to book hotels was down 8% on 2002 and the Internet up 7%. Travel bookings through an operator were down 10% on 2002 and the Internet up 15%.