VisitGuernsey has reported a healthy 7.3% increase in staying visitors for Q1, 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
The latest figures show that staying leisure visitors to the island increased by 8.4% year-on-year. Those who visit the island to see friends and relatives, and who also stay, increased by 26.6% while staying business visitors decreased by 14.5%.
These positive figures resulted in the number of bed nights sold increasing by 8.5%, generating a total bed nights figure for Q1 of 118,500.
Day visits (business & leisure combined) have however decreased by 20.9% in comparison to 2014, due to a 30% decline in total day visitors by air.
Guernsey saw a significant increase in visitors by sea year-on-year, with an upsurge of 37%, with no areas of decline by sea for Q1, 2015 year-on-year. Visitors by air decreased by 1.4% to 28,980.
Total UK visitors increased by 8.1% and other nationalities increased by 2.2%, while visitor numbers from Jersey have decreased by 32.9%.
Mike Hopkins, director of Marketing & Tourism, VisitGuernsey said:
“We are delighted to announce a positive start to the year, especially for the all-important, value-generating, staying visitors. It is encouraging to see this growth in Q1, which is traditionally a quieter time on the island for tourism. It is thanks to the efforts of our on and off island partners that our season is extending outside of the peak summer booking period for staying visitors. Whilst we have been able to identify the areas of growth, we can also see where the opportunities lie in terms of driving business travel, visitors who travel by air and average length of stay.”
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