Mark Wilson is the Managing Director of Sleepwell Hotels, owners of The Claremont and a number of other hotels locally and in the UK.  Below, he comments on the Isle of Man Government’s recent ‘Tourism Visitor Economy Strategy’ and its implications for the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Tourism and the ‘visitor economy’ have a vital role to play on the Island, helping to bring in revenue, raise the quality of facilities for residents and support the general business community.  As a result, the Manx Government will continue to invest in achieving measurable growth in the sector, set out in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).  These are the two main thrusts of the short document outlining the Government’s tourism development strategy between now and 2015, and they are both highly encouraging.

Some of the KPIs are more ambitious than others, however. For example, a 5% increase in coaches travelling to the Island by 2013, equating to an increase of 17 more coaches is relatively modest target and a figure that could well be driven by realistic ferry availability during the key seasonal dates. In contrast, the stated KPI of improving cruise ship passenger arrival rates by 20% in the same period is clearly a significant increase on the current position.  Overall, I feel that the sector should be aiming for more than the stated 5% growth in real spending and 4% increase in visitor volume by 2015.  However, even if some of the figures are relatively modest, the overall strategy is one of measureable progress and is most definitely targeting the right areas.  Events, for example, are the easiest way to build visitor volumes in a way that should benefit the Tourism sector and the Island as a whole.  New Events will introduce new and untapped customer bases, increase international awareness and often have a positive impact for residents.  We are supporting this approach by both sponsoring and subsidising accommodation for events such as the End 2 End bike race and would encourage more public-private partnerships in developing similar attractions.

Challenges remain, however.  As the strategy’s SWOT analysis points out, the perceived high cost of travel to and from the Island remains a serious issue and anything that could be done to help mitigate this problem would be welcome.  We also still face a major awareness problem, with a significant lack of understanding of the Islands location and facilities particularly in the South of England and Europe.  In this regard, I was certainly glad to see the commitment to maintaining a high level of public relations (PR) coverage and recent editorial visits from leading UK journalists have started to demonstrate the value of this process.

There is a focus throughout the document on a steady improvement in the quality of accommodation and services available on the Island.  We certainly recognise the need for this and have invested heavily, with over £2 million being spent on the renovation of The Claremont Hotel in Douglas.  As a result, we have raised the bar for business class accommodation on the Island, which has been recognised by the property gaining 4 star status last year and also our ‘Highly Commended’ award for new Claremont Luxury Bedroom concept in the  recent ‘Bloomberg International Hotel Design Awards’.  We are also trying to address the skill shortage faced by the hospitality sector highlighted in the strategy as a cause for concern and to introduce hospitality stars of the future. To this end we have recently undertaken a training course and industry work placements in our properties for unemployed young people, an initiative run conjunction with the DED.

Moving forwards, the DED has committed to involving private enterprise in the implementation of the strategy through a number of Chamber of Commerce chaired, Tourism Committees. This is a very positive move that was discussed some time ago, hopefully we will see the instigation of this now move very quickly to assist everyone involved in the Tourism industry in taking the necessary steps to meet the strategy’s KPIs.

In conclusion, I welcome the intention and content of the strategy and hope that Sleepwell Hotels can continue to be an active participant in delivering a stronger and more appealing offering to would-be visitors to our Island.