WHAT’S the difference between Jersey and the Italian city of Pisa? OK, one is Italian and has got a leaning tower, but what else is it that helps to distinguish the two locations – which both have good air links and an extensive tourism infrastructure?

The answer is that one of them has thousands of tourists at this time of year, and the other doesn’t.

The reason for my interest in the differences between Jersey and Pisa is because I have just come back from a three-night break in the Italian city.
I had already seen the leaning tower, so it wasn’t the art or architecture that attracted me back; it was to celebrate the 60th birthday of my sister-in-law and there were 17 of us all together.

We had decided on Pisa because it had everything we needed for a short break: cheap flights, reasonable hotels, good restaurants, plenty of wine and, oh yes, a leaning tower to ogle at. We weren’t too worried about the weather although, luckily, it was fine.

Ignoring the architectural monuments, Jersey also has many of the ingredients necessary for a short interesting break out of season, whether it’s to celebrate a birthday, an anniversary, a hen party or just a couple of days away from home. But, unlike Pisa, few people have discovered the short-break delights of Jersey, despite the tourism authorities realising that this is lucrative business.

Detailed research into the market for short breaks in Jersey appears to be lacking, however, and it’s the kind of thing you might expect to have been included in an economic growth plan, but wasn’t.

Concentrating more on short breaks would not even represent a significant diversification which might have the shortcomings highlighted in the recent economic growth report by the Economic Development department. It’s already a part of the existing tourism industry, and a few hoteliers
obviously do quite well out of offering short-break holidays already. It’s just that there’s not enough of it, and we don’t seem to do it properly or with any kind of enthusiasm. If it fits in with what we’ve been doing the rest of the year, then fine, but we’re not going to make too much effort to cater for it if it means investing more money or taking a risk.

So the attitude to out-of-season tourism is still stuck in the 20th century in many cases, and although many of the ingredients are already there, we need to do things differently and certainly invest more.

It’s not just a nice addition to the main season achieved by simply staying open longer. It needs to be catered for.

Unfortunately we still have businesses where the owners are happy to have expensive assets lying ideal for a large part of the year, just so long as they have been able to screw enough out of the high season to make a profit. They used to be able to do this and then go off to the Caribbean for the winter, but those days are over, and they are now more likely to be looking at selling up because it’s become too difficult.

Others simply keep their hotels and tourist attractions closed and get rid of their staff for a large chunk of the year. That’s in an island that is supposed to be concerned about getting the most out of limited assets, particularly people.

Thankfully hoteliers in Pisa don’t have that attitude. They will discount heavily out of season just to keep their hotels open and their staff employed. The end result is that the Body family and its relations were able to enjoy all the facilities of a four-star hotel for three nights at a price we would find hard to match for one night in Jersey out of season.

I would guess that the hotel was probably only covering its costs. But at least they were earning some money and they retained their staff all year round and were able to offer them a career and not just a seasonal job which is all most Jersey hoteliers can provide.

Saving on the room rate didn’t mean that the Body family spent less money (unfortunately). We just spent more on food and wine, shopping and sightseeing.

Naturally not everything is open in Pisa at this time of the year. The museums have restricted hours and there are very few tours available. But there’s enough going on to make the out-of-season visitor feel as though he’s welcome.

It would also be unfair to compare the bustling shopping areas of a fairly large city like Pisa with St Helier, which can resemble a ghost town at this time of year. But unfortunately that’s the comparison that short-break travellers will make, so more has to be done to improve the appeal of the town, even though enormous strides have been made.

However it’s the proverbial chicken and egg dilemma. Not many are going to invest in opening out of season or in providing facilities for the short-break market because there are too few people attracted to the Island at that time of year. And people won’t come to Jersey out of season until there are more reasons for them to come.

We certainly already have good transport links, a beautiful countryside and coastline and plenty of good restaurants, but even the shortest of short-break traveller will want more than just to walk and eat.

In the case of Pisa it’s the leaning tower and the surrounding area. In Jersey we’re lucky to have a famous zoo, the very popular war tunnels and one interesting museum open at this time of year. But is it enough?

I personally think we need at least one more major all-weather attraction, and my favourite would be a very good aquarium. That would be very appropriate for an island and we even have the site at Fort Regent where it could perhaps be set within an attractive winter garden environment.

Obviously that’s a very big investment which might be justified if we had a large number of tourists all year round, but which would be out of the question on current tourism figures.

It would be a risk and it would require a leap of faith in the future of tourism, which is currently lacking. However is it totally out of the question that the current low figures for bed nights sold in October, November, March and April could be doubled? That might make the difference, although I’ve no way of knowing whether this is simply cloud cuckoo land or a missed opportunity.

However it’s the kind of issue I would have liked to see explored and discussed in Economic Development’s economic growth plan. But I suppose that was too much to expect.

Peter Body is editor of Business Brief magazine