EVERYBODY seems to be very impressed with the new TV commercials for Jersey Tourism. It includes some stunning scenery and plenty of happy people frolicking on the beach.

Let’s just hope and pray that the visitors attracted to the Island by such images come when the Island is living up to its reputation as the sunniest place in the British Isles. It would be an exaggeration to say that the Island’s tourism industry is stuck in a rut by continually promoting Jersey as a beach resort. There are other TV commercials which emphasise food, walking and shopping.

Nevertheless, the major effort and the most money is spent on promoting the traditional beach attractions, which is what the Island has been doing for 40 years or more. To many people, at certain times of the year, that’s precisely what Jersey is all about, and now is the time when they traditionally book those summer holidays.

They can’t be ignored, but concentrating so much effort on just one market segment, which will only come here during a few months, is certainly not the answer to rejuvenating the whole tourism industry.
We also mustn’t forget that a large proportion of the millions of people Jersey Tourism boasts will see these commercials, will not be persuaded to book a holiday in Jersey or anywhere else. Many more will be persuaded to order a brochure, but won’t book until a month or less before they travel.

By that time they will have seen plenty of other beautiful commercials from other places with serious amounts of money to spend on marketing and, dare I say it, some pretty stunning beaches as well.
So the current marketing efforts are important for a certain section of the industry, particularly package holidays, but they will neither make nor break the tourism season or seasons.

The number of people wanting a sun and sand holiday in the Island is also dwindling because it’s blindingly obvious that they can get more sand and more sun elsewhere. There has got to be something else to make them want to come.

Perhaps with the current strength of the euro, a sun and sand holiday in Jersey is particularly good value at the moment compared to one in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy or anywhere else in southern Europe.
But local tourism experts refuse to promote this fact because they say the exchange rate advantage might only be temporary. That’s true of course. It could be as temporary as a sunny day can be in a Jersey summer.

But it seems to me that in a highly competitive environment we have to promote any possible advantage we have whenever we have it. Yes, Jersey’s beaches are great, but I’ve seen some pretty good ones in Cornwall as well.

The food is good also, but Cornwall is certainly not just fish and chips either. There must be something else that distinguishes Jersey and makes it worth visiting, other than what we constantly plug in our advertising campaigns. Nice beaches, scenery, good food and almost VAT-free shopping provide a solid base on which to work, but on their own they are not enough.

It’s that elusive extra ingredient that has been lacking from Jersey’s marketing, not just recently, but for many years. Even the practical advantages of a holiday in Jersey could be quite attractive to many prospective visitors, but are rarely mentioned.

Not having to exchange currency nor carry a passport are obvious ones, but reasonably hassle-free travel is also worth promoting. Short journey times are also important to the environmentally conscious, even if most fuel is consumed in taking off and landing.

Then even the most dedicated sun worshipper wants to do more than just laze on the beach all day, even if the weather is suitable. Much has been said about event-led tourism in Jersey. Unfortunately there is no sign of much being done.

The beautifully-produced Pure Jersey magazine does a good job in setting out Jersey’s attractions, including providing a comprehensive list of events. This looks very impressive, until you read the details.
Now I’m sure that the Spring Flower Show is quite impressive and lots of locals enjoy it, but it’s definitely not Chelsea. It’s unlikely that the Island could ever aspire to organising anything like the Chelsea Flower Show, but we need to get a lot closer to it if we want to promote any such event in the tourism calendar.

There has also been much talk about developing a third major event alongside the Battle of Flowers and the International Air Display as tourism attractions. Once again, not a lot has happened and our visitors will have to make do with country fairs and amateur sporting events.

The common theme running through the limitations of the tourism effort, as I see it, is a lack of funds.
Obviously much more could be achieved if more money was available. We could market more effectively to the very many different groups which could be attracted to the Island without worrying about having to use up all our scarce resources just to maintain the traditional bucket and spade market.

Devoting more resources to Island events could also make a visit to Jersey more appealing for many different groups. I know that I have banged on about this in this column on many, many occasions, but now that everyone is worried about the economic future, perhaps more people will be concerned about the future of tourism.

It is currently the only viable alternative to financial services as a revenue earner and it could soon become very obvious that a strong visitor economy is not just nice to have, it’s vital. It’s not, however, going to happen through wishful thinking.
Peter Body is editor of Business Brief magazine