AS the Bank Holiday approaches, Islanders will be hoping that the recent run of poor weather will end and that late summer sunshine will rule as they enjoy the extra day off.

But those fortunate enough to live in Jersey will not be the only people with eyes on the skies. The Island’s many valued visitors will also be eagerly anticipating better conditions.

However, even if we must accept that the Channel Islands lie in a position where it is occasionally possible to experience the weather of four seasons during the course of a single day, there are encouraging signs that we and the other Bailiwicks are still attractive and intriguing enough to encourage significant paying customers to come to our shores.

Jersey hoteliers are saying that increasing numbers of tourists are choosing the Island for shorter Bank Holiday breaks, and some say that their establishments are fully booked for the coming weekend. Others are anticipating more business based on an interesting trend – the tendency for holidaymakers to leave booking to the last possible moment.

In the meantime, arrival figures are holding up well, even if they are not significantly higher than last year’s. Half-year statistics show that 142,000 visitors travelled to the Island between January and June. This might be a shadow of the performances recorded during the heyday of two-week bucket-and-spade holidays, but it is more encouraging than the year-on-year declines that were characteristic of the recent past.

But we should not be remotely surprised that Jersey remains a noted holiday destination. Living in the midst of beautiful coastal scenery, tranquil green lanes, wooded valleys and a landscape littered with the often magnificent relics of the past can lead to complacency. Visitors from less salubrious surroundings, on the other hand, can hardly believe that so much is packed into such a small area.

Fears have been voiced that Island tourism would be hard hit by the effects of the recession, but the worst of them appear not to have been realised.

It is possible that we have been protected to some extent by the relative strength of the euro, but anecdotal evidence also suggests that our top-of-the-range hotels are doing proportionately better, perhaps indicating that the phrase ‘going upmarket’, much used in the 1980s and 1990s, now has some foundation in reality.