Since September 2023 we have been trying to record the number of athletes travelling in and out of the Island to play sport,
The Jersey Sports Council believes that Sport Tourism is a vital cog in the Island’s visitor economy as well as creating a better sporting environment and improving levels of competition for Jersey sports people.
Unfortunately this appears to be an opinion which does not appear to be supported by Visit Jersey who rarely comment about Sport in their programme.
According to these figures 6,765 athletes travelled to Jersey to play sport whilst 5,427 went off island. This compares to 7,616 inbound and 5,868 outbound in 2024. This is not an exhaustive figure as I can only include data provided to me or by a regular trawl of the JEP to try and find out about fixtures home and away involving travellers. Unfortunately there are many competitions which slip through the net. Equally, these numbers just record athletes and not family supporters and spectators who travel with their teams.
Thanks to those of you who provided numbers but in particular Jersey Rugby who unfailingly provided fixtures and travelling numbers.
As well as regular travel in both directions numbers have been bolstered by Inter Insulars in various sports and major events such as the Hockey Junior Festival, the Football Primary Schools Tournament, the Racketball Festival, the International Festival of Motoring, British Secondary Schools Table Tennis Competition, Padel Bronze Tour Tournament, ICC Cricket Tournament, Squash Festival, Jersey Marathon, Jersey Motor Rally, Bar Billiards World Championships among others.
The cost and availability of travel has become more onerous particularly following the demise of Blue Islands and the problems surrounding inter island ferries.
Although we will no longer collate these figures The Jersey Sports Council will continue to champion the merits of Sport Travel and argue for greater grants and improved links.
