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The Guernsey Retail Group has recorded a 34% increase in store footfall when cruise ship passengers come into the island.
“Whilst it is no secret that the arrival of a cruise ship adds to the number of people circulating in St Peter Port, we were pleasantly surprised by these figures,” said Korinne Le Page, Head of Retail Development at the GRG.
The data was collected by GRG ‘counters’ who placed themselves around St Peter Port during the time the MSC Virtuosa visited the island. They then compared that data to a previous time in Town when there were no visiting cruise ships.
“In total, last Tuesday, we measured 5,767 movements compared with 4,305 on Tuesday 18 April, representing a rise of 34%, which is fantastic for the Island and benefits local retail,” said Ms Le Page.
“The counters are starting to provide valuable information and trends which include these seasonal variations.”
The data has been welcomed by local retailers, including Andy Ison who owns Guernsey Goldsmiths.
“We are reliant on visitors due to the seasonality of our business, so the arrival of a cruise ship means not only a huge increase in footfall in town, but this also positively impacts on our sales figures.
“We take on extra staff on cruise ship days and did extremely well with the passengers from the MSC Virtuosa. Looking at previous years’ daily figures we can tell exactly when the ships were in town.”
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