Guernsey's Committee for Economic Development has released the latest visitor numbers for the island.
A strong April and May contributed towards an increase in visitors to Guernsey of two per cent (excluding cruise ships and visiting yachts) in Q2 2018, compared with the same period last year. This translates into more than 13,000 additional bed nights spent in paid-for commercial accommodation in the quarter compared with Q2 2017.
Although year-to-date total departing visitors (excluding cruises and visiting yachts) decreased by two per cent on 2017 due to poor weather conditions in the first quarter, commercial bed nights, a key contributor to the tourism visitor market, increased by one per cent (+4,025 bed nights), compared with the first half of 2017.
Q2 results
Total visitor numbers increased by 1.4 per cent from April to June (+148,614, compared with +146,617 in Q2 2017). Excluding cruise passengers and visiting yachts, visitor numbers increased by two per cent (+89,434, compared with +87,801 in Q2 2017).
Total staying leisure visitors remained stable at 48,647, whilst total staying visitors – which includes staying business visitors and those staying for other reasons – increased by one per cent (+924 visitors).
Visitors staying in commercial accommodation increased by three per cent (+1,897 visitors), with an increase in bed nights of five per cent (13,321 additional nights). The average length of stay also increased by two per cent, from 4.25 nights in Q2 2017 to 4.34 nights this year.
The number of staying business visitors increased 26 per cent (+1,994) compared with Q2 2017, and business day visits remained stable at +2,773.
There was a five per cent increase in visitors from the UK (+2,894), with visitors from France up three per cent (+246) and elsewhere by 11 per cent (+1,164). However, the number of visitors from Jersey declined by 35 per cent (-2,670).
Year to date results
Total visitor numbers decreased by 1.8 per cent from January to June 2018 (178,230, compared with 181,428 in 2017).
Excluding cruise passengers and visiting yachts, visitor numbers were two per cent lower – but this was a big improvement on Q1 performance, which suffered from severe weather conditions.
Despite the fall in staying leisure visitors, the total number of paid-for bed nights in commercial accommodation increased by one per cent (+4,025) year to date.
This was due in part to an increase in business staying visitors of seven per cent and a two per cent increase in the average length of stay in commercial accommodation (4.1 nights in January to June 2018 versus 4.0 nights in 2017).