Guernsey is enjoying a boost in French visitors to the island, tourism authorities have revealed.
Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands near the north French coast, is known for its sandy beaches and bays, coastal cliff walking and rich history landmarks.
UK travellers can get to the island in as little as 40 minutes by flight or around three hours by ferry, and those visiting from France can hop on a plane from Paris or join one of the ferry services from its northern ports, which take roughly two hours.
Visit Guernsey, the island’s tourism board, has revealed that visitors from France via ferry increased by 1,236 between January and September this year, compared to the same period in 2023.
Taking into consideration ferry passengers departing from Cherbourg, Dielette and St Malo, the total number of visitors from France crossing the channel by boat was 73,390, a two per cent increase from 72,154 last year.
The majority of visitors came from St Malo, a port city in Brittany, France, which showed a giant 26 per cent leap in visitors – 13,414 more than last year.
A total of 64,208 visitors departed by ferry from St Malo this year, a significant rise from 50,794 in the same period last year.
An initiative was introduced a few years ago for French nationals to be able to travel to the Bailiwick of Guernsey on a day trip only using their National Identity Cards on one of the direct ferry services Manche Iles Express and Condor Ferries. This policy has been extended until the end of September 2025.
While the UK is Guernsey’s primary market, with more than 111,000 visitors by ferry so far this year, the tourism board says that France provides a strong secondary market which they are consistently trying to grow.
Hannah Beacom, Guernsey’s tourism management board chairwoman, said: “We have proactively extended our marketing reach into France and further into Europe – the German, Swiss and Austrian markets.
“We have been working closely with our Paris-based PR agency to bring top publications to the island, such as Gala, Telerama, Grazia and Marie Claire Idees, and compliment the journalist angle by attending trade shows such as IFTM Top Resa to meet tour operators and trade partners, as well as advertising digitally across Paris, Normandy, and Brittany.”
Flights from Paris to the island on Guernsey’s airline Aurigny are also available and have brought 5,633 passengers so far this year, Visit Guernsey said.
This compares to 429,939 UK travellers arriving at the island by air this year.
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