Guernsey visitor numbers match last summer
The statistics from VisitGuernsey are based on responses to a survey from 84 accommodation providers, which make up 76% of Guernsey's open units.VisitGuernsey said the majority of accommodation providers did not report any comments about the visitor numbers.Six respondents, however, said they were concerned about bookings for August.VisitGuernsey said in response that it had launched a campaign on social media and with a special offer email to boost last-minute bookings for the month.
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Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
The 16 unofficial middle-class holiday rules… that we're getting all wrong
There are many supposed truisms about travel trotted out by right-thinking people. These are often misguided. Among the more specious are the following: 1. Chain hotels are soulless, so to be avoided No. Give me a clean room, a comfortable bed, a bath in the bathroom (Lord help us, not the bedroom), lighting I can understand, predictable standards – and I'll supply all the soul that's needed. 2. Always eat where the locals eat Why? Even in Europe, locals will eat some appalling muck – or perhaps you've never tried Provençal pieds-et-paquets or Norwegian rakfisk? And following locals in, say, Hackney might very well lead to jellied eels. How Bolivian visitors will curse you for that bit of advice. 3. Never order a full English breakfast in foreign parts Why ever not? Look around you. Japanese people seek out Japanese restaurants in London; Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz both favour Spanish restaurants near Wimbledon; Italians pile into trattorie all over the world. So eggs, bacon and the full floor show are not merely allowed but positively recommended in the morning sun of Torremolinos. It's the finest possible setting for the best breakfast in the world. Be proud, and demand brown sauce. 4. Keep off the beaten track Wrong. The track is beaten because there's something worthwhile at the end of it. Otherwise it wouldn't be beaten. Stay off the beaten track and you'll likely end up somewhere no-one wants to go: Chernobyl, North Korea, Roubaix, Northampton, that sort of place. 5. Airline meals are dreadful Really? You're moving at 550mph, 35,000 feet above the ground… and you're complaining about the state of the lasagne? 6. You mustn't use knives and forks for Chinese food, or spaghetti Oh yes, you must. Thin sticks are uniquely ill-designed for the eating of rice and noodles. Only a totalitarian society would insist on them. Meanwhile, the Italian requirement that spaghetti be not cut but twirled is just another of their ways – coffee invisible to the naked eye, Mario Balotelli, the Mafia – of annoying the world. Chop it up, for heaven's sake – it tastes the same and doesn't stain – and, when Chinese or Italians come to Britain, demand they eat their fish and chips with a brick. 7. Always avoid other Britons on holiday Why on earth? We're usually pretty decent; also the only ones who can maintain a conversation about the pension triple lock, Bonnie Blue, Port Vale FC, roadworks on the A59, the mystery of London's parakeets or the legacy of Ozzy Osbourne. Spaniards in a Spanish bar are no more interested in talking to you if you don't speak Spanish than you are interested in talking to monoglot Slovenians down your local pub. Also you are the other Britons to other Britons, so need to leave wherever you are as soon as other Britons show up, so as not to torpedo their holiday. 8. We got on marvellously, though we had no common language No. You thought you got by with signs and smiles. You didn't. As you expressed admiration for Volodymyr Zelensky, so they understood you were inviting them for a fortnight back in Peterborough. 9. In France, you don't order a well-done steak or a café au lait in mid-afternoon Yes you do, if you want to. You're the customer, Gaspard is the waiter. He disapproves? So what? If he was so great, he'd be sitting where you are and you'd be serving him. 10. We support sustainable tourism Terrific. Go to Southend. Or Blackpool. Or Nice. They've all sustained tourism since the late 18th century. 11. We're not tourists, we're travellers No, you're not. If you leave home for leisure, you're a tourist. 'Travellers' are merely tourists with ideas above their station and odd headgear. There's no moral or qualitative hierarchy of holiday experiences. Flying to Alicante is in no way inferior to flying to Ulaanbaatar. It's just a different departure gate. 12. We always try to soak up local culture Dangerous. Flamenco is occasionally OK, as is tango in Buenos Aires. That said, fado in Lisbon, dirndl skirts in Bavaria and any folk dancing anywhere have the same effect on a holiday as a colonoscopy. 13. We never stoop to fast food outlets Believe me, you would – if you saw the alternatives in some resorts I could mention. Put it this way: thank heavens for KFC in Fleetwood, Lancs. 14. We never fly Ryanair – they treat passengers like cattle No, they don't. Look around you again. It's mainly the passengers who behave like cattle. Ryanair staff undoubtedly take vows of patience. Were I faced with shuffling hordes trying to cram a ton of hand luggage into the overhead locker and a gallon of gin and tonic down their throats, I'd be roaring down the aisle, kicking travellers right and left towards the emergency exits. Which I'd open. 15. We don't buy tourist tat A pity. Gift shops, their owners and families depend on you buying a small cuckoo clock or plate featuring a bloke in lederhosen blowing an alpenhorn and emblazoned 'Andenken aus Deutschland'. 16. Sorry, but we don't do lying-about-on-the-beach holidays Yes, we get it; you're way too cultivated for that, way too clever to relax with a book and your family and a glass of rosé and maybe some friends and maybe also a leisurely dip and laughter and a chance to educate the kids ('How do crabs have babies?' 'Sideways') and the sort of relaxation you always say you hanker for, don't have time at home. Why waste time doing all that, when there's a neo-Gothic chapel to explore?
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
Cannes v St Tropez: which is better?
Pitting these two Riviera rivals against each other is more honourable duel than bar-room brawl — you'd be hard-pushed to find more elegant opponents. The names of both have become synonymous with sun-soaked Gallic luxury, and while there are similarities — both destinations, beloved of Hollywood A-listers, offer a good line in beaches, boats and boutiques — there are significant differences which may sway you in favour of one or the other. While both are titans of tourism, their physical size is an obvious point of contrast. Cannes is a city of 75,000 people; St Tropez is a small seaside town with less than 4,000 residents. As a result, high-season crowds are more heavily felt in the latter, where 80,000 visitors a day can swamp the picturesque streets that inspired Matisse, Chagall and their fellow Fauvists. Visit off-season if you want to sense the small fishing village that existed before the jet set came in their superyachts. The candy-coloured old town is undeniably gorgeous, as are many of the bronzed and beautiful visitors, who flock to the beach clubs and chichi restaurants. With few places to park and no railway station, St Tropez is designed for languid, lazy days and sybaritic nights. Cannes, on the other hand, offers not only more action within its environs — from markets and museums to the Lérins Islands in the bay — but is also a better base from which to visit the wider Côte d'Azur, not least because its hotel prices are a little more reasonable. However, the city isn't lacking in glamour, from the beach clubs lining La Croisette promenade to the star-studded film festival, usually held in May. As busy as St Tropez and Cannes may be in high season, the summer months bring swimmable waters, sun-kissed days, night markets and plenty of art and music festivals. And that's without mention of the celebrations around Bastille Day, which arrive with a bang on July 14 as fireworks are launched from beaches along the coast. Our guide sets the two combatants to contest everything from beaches and attractions to hotels and restaurants — en garde! This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue Winner It's a tie … both have fabulous beaches Cannes' main seafront sprawls along the palace hotel-lined La Croisette promenade as one big, golden beach. A handful of spots are public, such as Plage du Palais des Festivals (below the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, venue for the film festival). But the expensive private beach areas are the places to be seen, especially the plages of the Carlton and Martinez hotels, where champagne flows by the bucketful and A-listers snack on lobster with their feet in the sand. When you need to escape, the down-to-earth Lérins Islands, a short boat hop away, have charming creeks without the crowds, and shaded paths through wild forest. St Tropez, on the other hand, is all about beach parties. It has its share of restful spots — butterscotch-sand Plage des Graniers and pebbly Plage de la Ponche, amid the pastel-coloured houses below the citadel — but it's the beach clubs along Plage de Pampelonne that get the mega-yacht crowd going. Celeb-tastic experiences await along its sands in places such as Le Club 55 (created when Roger Vadim shot And God Created Woman with Brigitte Bardot) and La Réserve à la Plage, where the jet set come to swim, bronze and fine-dine. • Best beaches in Europe Winner St Tropez Cannes' seafront beach clubs are glorious spots for cocktails, especially at sunset, when the skies are striped Gucci pink and orange. But you can't beat its rooftop bars, where your spritz comes with 360-degree Med views and laid-back DJ sounds. You'll find a bustling bar scene in the streets behind the promenade — in trendy wine bars and British-style pubs, where punters spill out on to the pavement — and also in the city's three casinos. But for sheer fun, St Tropez wins hands down — for its posh Pampelonne beach clubs (again), but also for the Vieux Port in the old town, where celebs in flip-flops party on mega-yachts as champagne-fuelled crowds watch on from the terrace of Café Sénéquier. You'll find a more laid-back vibe behind the port, on plane tree-lined Place des Lices, a market square where locals sip bière over a game of pétanque. At sunset, the best spots are at Plage de la Bouillabaisse, where the beach bars have views across the shimmering gulf on to the twinkling lights of nearby Port Grimaud. • Read our full guide to France Winner St Tropez Beyond the Croisette's sea-facing palaces (where the food comes with whopping price tags), some of the loveliest eateries in Cannes are amid the steep, meandering lanes of the old town area of Le Suquet. Here, Provençal food features on most menus on your way up towards the Notre-Dame d'Espérance church — the perfect spot for a post-prandial walk thanks to its panoramic look-out terrace. Be sure to try local specialities such as soupe au pistou (a veggie and bean soup) and daube Provençale (red wine-marinated beef stew). But (as you'd expect in a town of such overt hedonism) St Tropez is possibly even more gourmet, with everything from Michelin-starred restaurants to hip seafood shacks to see and be seen in. It's fortunately not all about the bling, either: the creative dishes on the plates often shine brighter than the stars tucking into them. And many of the highlights — think artful reinterpretations of classic Mediterranean fare — are found in restaurants (such as La Table de la Messardière) beyond the seafront. Don't leave without munching on the town's namesake cake — tarte Tropézienne, a brioche-like delight filled with vanilla cream, created in the town in the Fifties. • Best restaurants in Nice Winner Cannes — by a sliver In most people's minds, the words 'Cannes' and 'hotels' equate to beachfront film-star haunts like the Carlton and the Martinez. But behind the Croisette, in the town centre and north of the train station (towards Le Cannet), there are plenty of lesser-known gems that'll place you in the action, without the price tag. St Tropez is smaller, so doesn't have quite as much choice (hence Cannes winning here). But what it does have are luxurious hidey-holes nestled in the lush hills just above the old town. One such place is La Bastide de Saint Tropez, a peach-coloured manor surrounded by gardens. Back in the centre, the Hôtel de Paris — where some junior suite dwellers can yacht-spot from their windows — famously attracted everyone from Édith Piaf to Clark Gable. Or try country-chic La Ferme d'Augustin — a fraction of the price and very pretty. For Garbo-esque isolation in Cannes, you'll want the hills around the nearby perched village of Mougins, or the rocky seafront just west of central Cannes, in Théoule-sur-Mer. Moroccan-themed Tiara Yaktsa is a secluded standout, with endless clifftop views over the azure sea. For a secluded splurge in St Tropez, bolt down at the super-romantic Château de la Messardière, surrounded by landscaped gardens and umbrella pines. Winner Cannes The seafront is a must-see when you're in Cannes — whether you do it on foot, along the Croisette (via the Allée des Stars, Cannes' handprint-filled answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame), in a posh hotel in the beach area, or by boat. But it's just a fraction of the offerings: Forville market in the old town drips with fragrant, Provençal delights; fashion boutiques congregate around Rue d'Antibes, and a hike through the panoramic Croix des Gardes hillside takes you into an arboretum of mimosa trees (in peak bloom in February). Or you could sail to Île Sainte-Marguerite, home to the fortress that once held the Man in the Iron Mask and a magical underwater sculpture museum (accessible by snorkelling). When the beach parties get too much, St Tropez does have a few diversions up its sleeve: there's art to see in Musée de l'Annonciade (in a 16th-century chapel filled with the works of 20th-century greats such as Matisse and Signac) and at Maison des Papillons, a quirky butterfly museum amid pastel-painted former fishermen's homes. Wine-tasting abounds on the peninsula, at places such as Château Minuty, a glorious vineyard near the pretty hilltop village of Gassin. For sports, you can try Flyboarding and parasailing off Pampelonne, or hiking along the wild Sentier du Littoral, a spectacular coastal path that glorifies St Tropez's sumptuous natural setting. Cannes It's a very close call but Cannes just pips St Tropez to the post. Swinging in Cannes' favour is its accessibility, both in terms of prices and location. After all, you don't come to this part of France just to stop in one place. You hop around from bar to restaurant, and from boat to party. So having good transport links will certainly help you get from A to B, while every penny saved on hotels will allow you to get more out of the experience. Then there's the fact that Cannes is just so much bigger, absorbing those summer crowds with ease — something that St Tropez often struggles with. If it's any consolation, St Tropez is just a short drive away for those big nights reporting by Oliver Berry and Joanna Booth • Best beaches in France• Best villas in the south of France
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
A town divided: how cruise tourism tore Greenland's iceberg capital in two
It is known as the 'iceberg capital of the world' but to the mayor of Ilulissat in northern Greenland, it is also a town divided where friends and neighbours have stopped talking to each other in a dispute over the cruise ships that bring tourists to see its frozen wonders. Its Unesco-listed icefjord draws thousands of visitors in the summer months, each potentially bringing lucrative business to the town. But frustrated local tour operators say they are being shut out by larger companies from elsewhere in Greenland and Denmark, who are undercutting local businesses or excluding them entirely – while local boats sit unused in the harbour. Ilulissat's mayor, Lars Erik Gabrielsen, has called on residents to protest against the cruise ship arrivals with demonstrations and signs – drawing the ire of a minister in the territory's government who has accused him of scaring off tourists. The community, he said, is divided between those who have chosen to work with Greenland Cruises, a Greenlandic-owned company based in Nuuk, and Danish company Vela Nordic, and those who have not. 'We don't even recognise ourselves,' said Gabrielsen. 'We are not saying hello to each other because we are split.' If cruise ships stopped working with these two companies and Diskoline, a transport company owned by Topas Explorer Group, a Danish travel company, they would be supporting local taxpayers, he said. 'It's very awful. We are very sad. And our government cannot even understand us.' Greenland's minister for business, Naaja Nathanielsen, condemned Gabrielsen's call for action with a statement accusing him of 'a very unfortunate mix of exercising authority and activism'. He was, she said, sending 'a clear signal' to operators that they 'risk being met with demonstrations arranged by the authorities'. Several cruise calls to the town had already been cancelled, she said, and several others were considering bypassing Ilulissat. A cruise ship was last year blocked from entering the port over claims it was only using foreign-owned tour providers. The dispute comes at a key time for the territory, where traditionally fishing has been the dominant industry but tourism is playing an increasingly important role as the Arctic ice melts. Tourism is also seen as an important economic component to securing independence from Denmark, which ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953 and still controls its foreign and security policy. US interest in Greenland is meanwhile soaring amid Donald Trump's threats to acquire the territory, centred around both minerals investment and tourism. This summer saw the introduction of direct flights from New York to Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, after the opening of a new international airport. An airport is also under construction in Ilullisat, due to open next year. Gabrielsen accused Nathanielsen of painting him and his allies as 'bad people', but said they simply want to ensure local involvement in the cruise industry. 'We want to also be involved in tourism in the future, so that our children and grandchildren can see themselves in this growing industry,' he added. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion A tourism act was last year passed aimed at sustainable development of the sector and locally rooted tourism but Gabrielsen disputed it would make any difference. He instead proposes that Greenland should have a tourism agency run by municipalities and the industry so tasks and customers can be distributed more fairly. Tax law also needs changing to tackle the problem, he said. The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), which last year facilitated multiple meetings in Ilulissat with local stakeholders and operators, said it is 'aware of the concerns raised in Ilulissat and understands that the frustration appears to be directed primarily at companies registered in Greenland.' A spokesperson added that the situation 'appears to reflect local dynamics and differing views on how tourism should be managed.' Anne Nivíka Grødem, CEO of Visit Greenland, said: 'We view the recent developments in Ilulissat with great concern, where local calls for protest against certain tourism operators have led to unrest and uncertainty. This not only affects our visitors but also disrupts the collaboration between those who contribute to creating jobs and income in the town.' Christian Keldsen, director of Greenland Business Association, said the dispute centres around differing definitions of 'local'. 'In the word of the law all the companies operating here are Greenlandic, although some may have owners that live abroad, for example in Denmark.' Diskoline said in a statement: 'We believe there is room for both established and new operators, and that the growing number of visitors can support a diverse and vibrant local tourism sector. Our goal is to work collaboratively, with mutual respect and openness. 'We also take pride in being a year-round employer in Greenland. Many of our employees are local, and we always prioritize hiring locally before seeking candidates from abroad, including Denmark.' Greenland Cruises declined to comment and Vela Nordic did not respond to requests.
