JERSEY Tourism’s campaign to get Jersey included on national TV and newspaper weather forecast has made news around the world.
Global news agency Reuters, GMTV and newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph are running stories that call for an end to ‘forecast discrimination’ by putting Jersey back on all weather maps.
Jersey Tourism public relations manager Mike Tait gave an interview this morning on BBC 5 Live and was due to speak on Radio 4 this afternoon.
Article posted on 29th July, 2010 - 2.59pm














25 Article Comments
We could even ask them to accompany the forecast with those photoshopped photos of Jersey’s aqua marine seas which all the holiday adverts here seem to have and which bare no resemblance to the reality.
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….and watch this backfire.
Reason: The forecast temperatures for London (for example), being slightly inland and a major urban area, are often warmer than they are for Jersey. So why would I book a holiday from the UK to an ‘island paradise’ when it’s colder than London???
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Whats the point-you get the tourist’s but then Jersey tourism lets you down by not laying on extra transport such as a shuttle bus to the West Show one bus an hour simple was not good enougth
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Probabaly the most useful and constructive course of action they could have taken…well done you….
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As someone who dutifully pays their BBC license fee I find it somewhat annoying to see a regular forecast for Ireland and mainland Europe but squat for us down at the bottom of the map.
However I would suggest that tourism work on their campaign to get tourists in, as is their job, rather than nit picking on something which has been the same for donkeys years.
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I have read the national newspaper reports on this. Tourism seem to be blaming the loss of millions of pounds on the fact that our weather is not announced on national forecasts.
They fail to point out that most of the lost revenue is because:-
1. Flights are too expensive, you can fly elsewhere in Europe and beyond (where good weather is guaranteed) far cheaper.
2. Rip off prices in Jersey. Once a tourist is here it is incredibly expensive
3. Lack of tourist facilities which might compete with other destinations. Local people even had the temerity to complain about a trampoline on the beach recently!
4. Starving the golden goose of tourism to pay to feed the fat cow of finance.
The weather might be good here but it is unpredictable, inconsistent and it might, only a small reason why tourists don’t come in droves anymore.
Tourists used to flock here in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The overall weather patterns have not changed a lot over the years and tourists did not have as many weather channels to refer to on the tv, internet or mobile phones.
If the weather hasn’t changed, what has? See 1 – 4 above.
But I suspect our government knows that really.
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Dammed if they do, dammed it they don’t springs to mind.
I am a Jersey girl now living in the UK, but regularly view this site just to keep myself up to date with what is occuring at home.
Times are hard everywhere. I belief is that, at least Jersey Toursim are getting Jersey talked about and written about via this campaign. Even if it is not successful it may encourage a few more tourist to come and spend their hard earned money in Jersey’s hotels, attractions and shops.
Please, please please can we not get behind things like this than constantly pick fault and be negative?
I for one miss Jersey very much and maybe because I have moved away (however hope to return one day) I am more inclined to celebrate what Jersey has to offer….clean beaches, excellent education system, friendly people and excellent health provisions.
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This is great coverage congrats to Mike Tait and the whole team
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@7 Missing Home
Well said! people moan about Tourism for years and when we get a positive campaign picked up by the local media – they complain again!
Well done Tourism and if it helps keep our flights and boat prices lower I’m all for any publicity that helps Tourism!
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The attitude at BBC weather is very odd.
When the picture pans round Britain you also only get around a second to see the temperature in London, while it seems to spend ages looking at Northern Ireland and Scotland.
I think this is known as positive discrimination. Jersey being perceived to be richer than London doesn’t get a mention at all!
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Anyone know where I can get an annual report from the Tourism Department? Their budget must be due for scrutiny if visitors this year are so poor. Someone told me that they went for a swim at St. Aubins bay and as they came out of the water, someone from tourism counted them in as an arrival!!!
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@ Grumpy Beggar
you have missed the whole point of this it is publicity and great publicity at that, yet as you just want to sit back and moan then perhaps that sums you up!
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Dead Ducks’ Ville. Mass tourism in Jersey,thanks Cynthia Minchinton is over, allow the professional hoteliers get on with what they do best.
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#5 No publicity is bad publicity I guess. It’s not an issue that will stop anyone deciding to come to Jersey but it could certainly put the idea of coming to Jersey into someone’s mind.
#10 James, I have no idea what weather you actually watch but I would say it’s the other way around. Never mind that the weather attributed to Scotland and NI is always way out from the actual weather, maybe the BBC trying to ensure any tourists to Britain choose England. I was in Dublin once watching a BBC weather forecast telling me it rained so heavily in Glasgow that many roads were flooded. I was blinking surprised to come back and find there hadn’t been even a spot of rain the entire week anywhere in Glasgow! Make no mistake, BBC don’t care a jot about anywhere outwith London!
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What a load of rubbish on R4 today, some half wit from tourism moaning about Jersey being missed off the weather.
1. Few pay the TV fee in Jersey, so why bother
2. Jersey is about the size of Carlisle or Nuneaton and they dont get a personal wether forecast, so why smug Jersey thinks it should get one is lost on me
3. If it is a cras way to promote Jersey, the last thing the UK wants to see is the word see mist and fog or “airport closed due to fog”.
Another interbred Liliputian clown from Tourism “bigging up” fantasy isle with a load of clap trap about the beaches blah blah blah!
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#11 ‘Someone told me that they went for a swim at St. Aubins bay and as they came out of the water, someone from tourism counted them in as an arrival!!!’
Someone got out of the water at St Ouen’s and said to me “I just had to get away from Guernsey”!!!
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@11.mo
Yes mo, I do know where you can get an annual report from the Tourism Dept, teir budget is due for scrutiny by any Tom, Dick or Harry.
It may come as a surprise…it’s the Tourism Website!!
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Just as well we are not on the weather map because where the hell has summer gone this past 3 weeks? Grey skies,rain, low temperatures whats going on?
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Thank you Tom.
I pay taxes and I vote. I also have to use the airport. I am entitled to moan about how our successive governments have run the tourism into the ground and to express my cynisism at their attempt to pass the buck at the BBC et al.
It might be publicity but I would assume that most people who may be interested in coming here because of the weather sound-bite will take a look at the cost of getting here and decide to go somewhere cheaper.
I didn’t miss the point Tom, I just consider it to be too-little-too-late and, as I say, I am entitled, as a tax payer and voter, to moan about it.
The publicity may come back to bite us anyway. Most of the time our weather is bland, windy, damp and overcast. Long spells of really good (Med style) weather are not that common.
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It may be warmer in London but not as sunny, sunshine hours is what counts not heat.
Tourism will never be as it was irrespective of the finance industry, people in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to an extent were more xenophobic than they are today (on average) therefore people saw Jersey as ideal, not anymore because people now know they can still get ‘Heinz beans full english breakfast’ served to them by english people aborad in ‘guranteed’ weather for less money period. It will never get any better unless all flights are grounded for ten years.
Jersey does deserve a mention on the weather forecast becuase most places in the uk are covered when they do the Britain overview so to say that Carlisle or Nuneaton dont get their own is stupid as the general area around those places do, where as we have to take London or Southampton temperatures for our forecast.
This is a point worth mentioning but i hope that people dont think it is important, as it is not, it wont change a thing, not one person planning a holiday in the UK after Jersey is given a mention on the forecast will book in Jersey because of it.
S
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Furthermore, Jersey Met can’t predict the weather in Jersey for more than 3 hours in advance, ‘if you want to know what the weather is like in Jersey…look out of the window’
S
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” Steve
Posted July 30, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Tourism will never be as it was irrespective of the finance industry, people in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to an extent were more xenophobic than they are today (on average) therefore people saw Jersey as ideal, not anymore because people now know they can still get ‘Heinz beans full english breakfast’ served to them by english people aborad in ‘guranteed’ weather for less money period. ”
You’re completely wrong, Steve.
It had nothing to do with Xenophobia and everything to do with the fact that the availabilty pf cheap package holidays to hot foreign countries did not become commonplace in the UK until the late 1960s.
A lot of English seaside towns suffered badly as a consequence, and during the early 1970’s many large pleasure piers went out of business as the family crowds headed to Spain every summer instead.
Coming back to Jersey, for a couple of decades after the war a holiday on the island was almost continental, without having the continental expense. And even after the arrival of cheap package holidays enough families remained loyal to Jersey as their regular vacation spot to keep us busy as a top tourist destination into the 1980’s.
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Please can we have some Jersey Tourism API’s.
There is a case for a weather API and even an events API.
This would be a fantastic way to spread the Jersey weather.
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tom
Posted July 29, 2010 at 5:21 pm
This is great coverage congrats to Mike Tait and the whole team
Read more: http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/07/29/the-sun-shines-on-forecast-campaign/#comment-73478#ixzz0vPc6GrKi
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Think this guy’s from tourism office dont you ?
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#18 Are you for real? I’m wondering how on earth a summer can go on so long with barely a break!
Well the island certainly seems to be awash with Swiss, French, Germans, Belgians, Austrians, Dutch and Swedish at the moment. I don’t remember quite such a mix last year so someone must be doing something right (or wrong).
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