The Isle of Man’s tourism agency is working with the island’s attractions and travel companies to extend the tourism season into the autumn and winter months.

Visit Isle of Man is working with Manx National Heritage, the Steam Packet Company and the Railways to capture ‘a share of the increasing demand for off-peak UK short breaks’.

This will involve continuing opening hours for popular attractions in the island, including MNH’s 12 sites, until Tuesday, November 29.

Isle of Man Transport will also be operating a weekend service for the steam trains and an events calender lasting until the end of this year will ‘provide an opportunity for visitors and residents to experience the island’s unique heritage and culture throughout autumn and winter’.

The non-executive chair of Visit Isle of Man, Ranald Caldwell, said: ‘The newly approved visitor economy strategy sets out ambitious targets of reaching 500,000 visitors per annum by 2032.’

‘Seasonality is a major challenge to achieving our visitor growth targets, with reduced visitors between September and March resulting in a number of temporary business closures during that period. Extending the season and attracting visitors during the autumn and winter is critical to realising the visitor economy’s growth ambition.’ He added.

The most recent available data from 2018 shows that number of visitors to the island that year was 308,263.

Manx National Heritage is responsible for many of the island’s historic attractions including the Laxey Wheel, Manx Museum, Peel Castle, the House of Manannan and Castle Rushen.

As part of the efforts to promote tourism during the winter season, the Steam Packet ferry service will be working with local hotels, such as the Ramsey Park and Comis, to create package deals as well as highlighting the extended MNH and railway services through their own marketing.

Alongside these partnerships, the tourism agency will be growing their association with UK and Ireland based travel agents and tour operators with a ‘Travel Trade Hub’ that will provide an online resource for holiday planning.

The ‘Our Island, Our Future’ 10-year visitor economy strategy can be viewed online through the Visit Isle of Man website.