Quality not quantity for tourism

Jersey's beaches are popular with people visiting the island

Jersey's tourism industry needs to focus on improving the quality of holidays rather than visitor numbers, the island's tourism director has said.

In Jersey's heyday there were about 25,000 registered tourist beds - that number is now about 12,000.

David de Carteret said: "We don't want to see fewer people, we're saying we want to give a quality experience."

He was speaking ahead of an annual conference of hoteliers, tour operators and tourist attraction representatives.

The event includes a review of the island's tourism performance over the past year.

"This year has been interesting and very difficult", Mr de Carteret said.

"We were very concerned at the beginning of the year, but we have done as well as we might have expected."