The Minister for Economic Development Laurence Skelly MHK has highlighted that a number of enquiries have been received by his Department from parties wanting to invest in new hotel and related developments within the Isle of Man's Visitor Economy.
Since the unfortunate closure of the Mount Murray complex last week attention has been increased on the Isle of Man's visitor accommodation. The Minister was keen to highlight the continued importance of the sector along with information on planned new accommodation.
The Minister said:
'In 2013 the value of the Visitor Economy was £107M. It also helps to enhance the quality of life for our residents through leisure and social activities, events and restaurants that a population of 85,000 people can't sustain. Quality of life is also important in retaining and attracting the highly skilled workers we need to help grow our economy.
'The Tourism sector within the overall Visitor Economy continues to perform well and the indications we have been given are that leisure visitors staying in paid accommodation increased over 10% in 2014 on the previous year.
'We are continuing to work closely with industry and they have advised us that this success translated into a year on year increase during 2014 in accommodation occupancy levels, passengers using our heritage railways, coach bookings and off-season ferry bookings.
'These achievements reflect the success of our Visitor Economy Strategy, launched in 2012, which set out the need to drive up quality and exploit new markets to develop the Island as a year-round, distinctive and unique visitor destination.'
There has been an increase in the number of higher quality bed spaces available in the Isle of Man which the Minister felt reflected both increased confidence in the sector and industry reacting to changes in the market and visitors' desire for higher quality accommodation.
The number of bed spaces at four star and five star increased by 21% between 2009 and 2014. Currently 53% of bed spaces in the Isle of Man are graded at either four star or five star.
Thirty-seven new accommodation businesses were established in 2014. During 2015 to date fifteen enquiries have been received from new businesses wishing to register accommodation.
The Minister continued:
'We have the new Mannin Hotel which is expected to be opened in Autumn 2015 which will provide over fifty new bedrooms.
'Furthermore, there are high quality developments being planned which will potentially increase accommodation provision further over the short to medium term such as Douglas Quayside, the Forge in Santon, the Castletown Golf Links site, Park Crest site in Ramsey and The Grosvenor site in Port Erin.
'We are also seeing Planning applications from existing accommodation providers and campsites looking to diversify into providing upmarket camping, or 'glamping' as it is more commonly known.'
