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The amount tourists are spending in the island each year is continuing to bounce back towards pre-pandemic levels as Visit Jersey pushes ahead with new advertising campaigns.
The tourism organisation has also revealed plans to partner with British Airways on a promotional scheme expected to reach millions of people.
Jersey saw an 11% increase in total visitor volumes last year compared to 2022, while 2024 data also shows a year-on-year increase – despite the numbers still falling short of pre-pandemic levels.
Additionally, annual visitor expenditure recovered to around £290m last year, which – adjusted for inflation – represents 83% of 2019 spending.
A Visit Jersey spokesperson said the trend was this year "tracking positively", with visitor spend up 12% compared to the same period in 2023.
Pictured: A graph showing annual self-reported tourist expenditure (adjusted for inflation).
The spokesperson continued: "This year, under the leadership of CEO Tricia Warwick (who joined at the end of April 2023), Visit Jersey’s business plans and marketing strategy were re-developed with an emphasis on island-wide collaboration, alignment with government and ministerial priorities (e.g. the Visitor Economy Strategy), and delivering maximum impact on Visit Jersey’s government grant.
"It’s also worth noting that when Warwick joined Visit Jersey’s staff turnover rate was over 30% – that figure has now been reduced significantly to 8%.
"Warwick and the Visit Jersey team have transformed the organisation’s marketing strategy to position the island more competitively, develop campaigns that deliver strong ROI, and focus on targeting the most relevant visitor profiles and segments."
Pictured: Visitor spending is currently up 12% compared to the same period in 2023. (Andy Le Gresley Photography)
Recent campaigns have included the 'Where Sea Meets Soul' advertisements, targeting audiences in France, Germany and the UK.
This resulted in a 74% increase in traffic to the Jersey.com website and over 60,000 referrals to island businesses, surpassing the number of partner referrals achieved by any previous Visit Jersey campaigns.
This month, a "refreshed" autumn and winter 'Where Sea Meets Soul' campaign was launched – and has so far generated 18,500 referrals.
Visit Jersey has also confirmed plans to launch "a new tactical campaign" on 2 October, in partnership with British Airways.
It will see travellers offered triple Avios points on holidays booked to the island.
Pictured: A new promotional campaign will be launched next month in partnership with British Airways.
The Visit Jersey spokesperson added: "The joint campaign with BA will be further promoted in the Evening Standard and is expected to reach an audience of 5m people."
In the Economy Department's 2024 Business Plan, performance measures have been included for both visitor numbers and expenditure with respective targets of 600,000 and £287m.
Economic Development Minister Kirsten said: "We really want to improve visitor numbers and visitor spend to have a more productive visitor economy," adding that Jersey had a "varied retail offering".
Pictured top: Jersey saw an 11% increase in total visitor volumes last year compared to 2022. (Andy Le Gresley Photography)
Rise in visitors in 2023 – but Jersey still falling short on 2019 levels
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