IT’S a general preoccupation, isn’t it, after the last cracker has been pulled, for us to turn our attention to the next opportunity for rest and recreation – namely the summer escape on annual holidays.

Unless we all opt for staycations, it inevitably leads us to dream of visiting pleasant and interesting locations.

It also means attracting folk to our own shores to boost our economy and inject some extra outside liveliness into the community.

After the Christmas cards comes the avalanche of the travel brochures. If they haven’t already dropped through your letterbox, you can find them unwrapped in the newspaper supplements and glossy magazines.

So, browsing through the Christmas Radio Times travel section, I came upon a discreet but concise enticement to visit Guernsey. I couldn’t find any for Jersey. That’s OK, I thought, because we’ve just been told about the launch of the latest £1million tourism campaign for the ‘warmest place in the British Isles’, with a £70,000 extra injected to place it among the Christmas programmes on Satellite TV.

Prominent placement in the schedules is, of course, vital so long as it doesn’t fall foul of the demon fast-forward button. (I still chuckle at the cheekiness of the Manx Tourist Authority, who managed to get an advert for its island screened slap in the middle of our Channel Report on CTV.)

Much has been made of the special opportunity this year of luring trippers from London during the pressured periods of the Olympics and Jubilee celebrations, so the iron needs to be struck while the heat’s on.

If you take tourism seriously as an industry, you have to consider its year-long activity. There is obviously a seasonal ebb-and-flow, but there are definitely ways of adapting your facilities to cater for a long-term market – and, if you’re really clever, influencing that market to suit what you have to offer.

Even temporary ice skating rinks could last all year round. Sadly, for those visitors brave enough to venture here just now, the buses are hibernating, the Heritage sites are closed and many decent cafés are dark.

It’s a chicken-and-egg situation: without facilities and attractions, there will be no takers; they’ll just go elsewhere. That’s fine when you’re in a seller’s market. But can we be so bullish? The official statistics for 1997-2010 says a resounding ‘No’.

During that time, overall visitor numbers fell from 985,000 to 685,000, while ‘staying leisure visitors’ dropped from 590,000 to 335,000. Cheap booze, cheap fags and a favourable VAT difference are no longer an incentive, so there must be more.

It all comes down to providing guests with value for their money before we take it off them. There is no point in luring people here when those dreamy castles are closed – and even when they’re open, there’s nothing in them.

Whatever happened to all the animated historical tableaux? Service industries depend on reputation, which can be seriously damaged by customers who feel disappointed. Despite ever more spectacular floats, the Battle of Flowers has, as a vibrant tourist spectacle, lost much of its attendant sparkle. There has to be something worthwhile seeing and participating in.

IT’S easy to draw comparisons, but look at the investment which ensures the success of events such as the Edinburgh Festival. Speculate to accumulate, and cultural diplomacy in the form of tourism is becoming an ever more powerful element in putting nations, even small islands, on the map. And it pays their bills.
It’s not just who we are, or what we’ve got – it’s what we do with what we have. Cliffs and castles are fine attractions, but they are not unique. They need to be marketed, and that’s where the effort is needed.

There are many challenges. First there’s the king’s ransom to pay to cross the sea to indulge them. Jersey Pottery is about to close, the Living Legend crouches in fear of the developer’s wrecking ball, Durrell, which prevents relics from disappearing from the planet, is one of the few which flourishes.

As a ‘for instance’, in the same edition of the Radio Times (and our own JEP), there’s the offer of guided tours of Downton Abbey. Now he may currently be drawing his old-age pension, but how about a magical mystery tour following the scenic route taken by Sergeant Bergerac as he sped to the Airport in his very non-standard open-top car from Havre des Pas via Gorey, L’Etacq, the Five Mile Road and St Aubin’s Hill?

I’m sure there’d be plenty of nostalgia takers up for a seat aboard Paul Talbot’s vintage charabanc. It would certainly overcome our woeful lack of signage. I jest, but you get my drift. If we’re not careful, the only major organised tourist attraction will be the displays related to our darkest period during the Second World War.

We can’t just rely on the accidental boost for local tourism courtesy of the likes of ITV’s Paul Heiney or the BBC’s frequent flyers of the Coast team. The film industry is indeed a bold showcase: it provides great free advertising, and we certainly have the locations. But to grow this precious resource, there is a pressing business need for serious investment –financial incentives, for example, which would also benefit local industries, not just UK ad agencies.

There are, of course, many genuine entrepreneurial efforts promoting our Island. The sport and leisure industry, though obviously subject to the vagaries of the weather, is at the forefront. But as with so much else vital for our well-being, they demand corporate backing from Jersey plc.

Let’s have no more evidence for the charge that the powers that be have failed to think things through.