Travel costs a thorn in side of industries
Saturday 28th February 2009, 9:29AM GMT.
Raymond Evison, left, representing the horticultural industry, Guernsey Tourism director of marketing and tourism Chris Elliot and Guernsey Finance’s Peter Niven, right, spoke yesterday at an IoD lunch held at the Duke of Richmond Hotel. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0727762)
THE high cost of travel is damaging Guernsey’s industries more than anything else.
The comments came at yesterday’s Institute of Directors lunch, when Deputy John Gollop asked the guest panel, which consisted of leaders from Guernsey’s main industries, what could be changed in order to help business and the island in general.
Guernsey Tourism director of marketing and tourism Chris Elliot, Guernsey Finance chief executive Peter Niven and Guernsey Clematis owner and founder Raymond Evison, representing the horticultural industry, all voiced the same firm opinion.
‘Transportation, the cost and complication of getting to and from this island, is a major problem,’ said Mr Evison, whose business relies heavily on export and who travels a great deal for business.
Finance representative Peter Neville said that sector was also being held back by the issue and he said he could see things getting worse for businessmen in the near future.
‘It is a big hassle and we have to go through Gatwick,’ he said.
‘It sounds as though we may all have to use passports in the future too. We could be in a passport queue with five jumbo jet loads of passengers from Orlando. It’s a potential nightmare.’
Tourism representative Chris Elliot said the issue affected tourism for the simple reason that it cost tourists a lot to travel.
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Quote “we may have to use passports in the future too”
Sorry but as an ex-pat I’m a bit out of date with all the latest news – can anyone explain to me why this has been mentioned. Is something about to change ? Will European ID cards (usually valid for travel) no longer be any good for travelling to and from the UK ?
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Costs are a major problem then. We are already subsidising Aurigny to the tune of tens of millions with running losses and the purchases of the new planes.
When can the taxpayers expect anything back exactly. Simple answer. Never.
Businesses need to stop winging. They set up over here. It is a nice Island and a beautiful place to live. With all the positives that we take for granted there is a few negatives. So what. Live with it or leave.
The UK is less than an hour away. People need to ask themselves some leading questions. If an hour out of ones busy schedule is over the top then don’t bother going away at all.
We have emails, video conferencing and post for documents so the need to be elsewhere is greatly reduced. Shipping products off Island may be a bit prohibitive but all knew this at the start up stage.
Maybe local HM Customs could screen passengers at our end and a private airstrip could be used for those that wish to shave twenty minutes or so off of their journey. This would need to all be paid for though. This is the biggest problem.
It appears as though those making the most money are looking for something for nothing. As usual.
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I know, lets put a few pence on each litre of vehicle fuel and give a subsidy to the poor dears.
There you are I’m now bright enough to be a Guernsey Deputy.
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As an annual traveller to Herm via Guernsey/Jersey. We find it infuriating & costly that what should be a short journey takes us flying from Bham 2 hrs because there are no direct flights to Guernsey at the times we need to get to herm before the ferries stop on the afternoons! Flybe which is the only carrier from Bham to CI is very expensive which I know puts a lot of people from bothering to visit CI they know that they can fly to most European cities for a lot less.
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Paul is right, we need to think of alternatives to getting on a plane everytime we want to talk to someone. The world is changing, there have been great leaps forward in technologies such as video conferencing which in turn is translating into less requirement for business travel, helping both costs and the environment. What our business community lacks is creative thinking, not surprising given the representated industries on the panel.
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