Sea kayaking at the Jersey Boat Show
Well we survived the coldest 5th May on record at the Jersey Boat Show to promote sea kayaking in Jersey.
A cold and windy Saturday at the boat show
Fortunately the weather improved over the next two days as it was very quiet on Saturday.
The show was good opportunity to showcase our sea kayak tours and courses in Jersey. We met quite a few people who do not realise there are many great water-sports and adventure activities on offer in Jersey.
We were in the Outdoor and active zone. This felt a bit separate to the main show as you had to brave the food section and then wander past the RNLI station to get to us. I suspect a few potential visitors got stuck at the Hog roast,Thai meals and other food stalls while trying to find the adventure activities zone.
30000 visitors to the show?
According to the organizers the foot fall was 30000 people over the weekend- about the same as last year. Frankly I am dubious that this number visited the show.
Saturday was a washout so numbers needed to be pretty high on both Sunday and Monday to make up for Saturdays low turnout. Any increase in numbers on Sunday and Monday did not seem to be reflected in the area we were in. Unless there were counters installed in the Outdoor area or at the main entrances I am not sure where this figure comes from. It means that around 20% of the population of Jersey visited over the weekend. I’ve previously suggested to the organizers that counters are installed to measure footfall like they do in Kings Street to give more accurate figures around the show areas.
If there is another Show (I heard rumours this might be the last one from some exhibitors- which is a shame) then more accurate footfall data would help.
On a different note is this really a boat show when out of 74 stalls 20 are food and drink related? By my calculations a further 19 were not very marine orientated. That means roughly 39/74 or about half the exhibitors were not marine related. Why not link a boat show in 2013 with the fish festival?
All in all it was a useful weekend which gave us the chance to meet a few old clients and promote sea kayaking in Jersey.
Lots of thanks to all who came by to say hello and help on our stand.
