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Cruise ship passengers coming to Guernsey in 2018 was up a fair amount compared to the previous year, but visitors to the island through other means were down 5%.
VisitGuernsey has released its quarter three statistics for the year.
Overall, there were an additional 1,388 visitors including cruise ship passengers, for a total of 99,888. 64,000 of these were from cruise ships. Excluding cruise and yacht passengers, there were 118,130 visitors in the quarter - 5% (6,859) less than 2017.
A spokesperson for VisitGuernsey said: "This fall in visitors was mainly driven by a drop in day visitors of -27%, largely caused by a decline in sea travel of -14% versus Q3 2017, with a number of ferries being cancelled during the quarter. French visitors travelling by sea, in particular, were negatively impacted. Overall French visitors decreased by -41% in Q3 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.
"Despite a strong Q2 and a stable Q3, the year to date saw total departing visitors show a slight decline of -0.5% versus 2017 - a fall of -1,810 visitors, due to a challenging first quarter of the year, with poor weather conditions negatively impacting travel to the island."
Visitors travelling by air increased by +1% (+941). However, those travelling by sea decreased by-14% (-7,800).
Deputy Dawn Tindall, of the Committee for Economic Development said: “We’re delighted to see such a healthy increase in cruise passenger numbers during both the quarter and the year to date and also the strong growth in visitors from Germany during Q3. This growth has been eroded somewhat by the challenges experienced with sea travel during this most important quarter for the visitor market, particularly the French visitor segment. However, it is encouraging that overall Q3 visitor numbers still show a modest increase.
“Looking ahead, plans are well in motion for the 2019 season, with the popular Heritage Festival launching in April and Hauteville House, an important attraction for the French market, set to reopen in April.”
Other statistics showed day business visitors increased by a healthy +16% versus 2017, but this increase was not large enough to counteract the sharp fall in leisure day visitors of -33%.
There was a -4% decrease in visitors from the UK, visitors from Jersey, however, increased by +18%, with visitors from France declining by -41%. Visitors from other destinations increased by +5% – this included a strong uplift in visitors from Germany of +42%.
Pictured: One of many visiting cruise ships.
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