Isle of Man's £173,000 Influencer Spend Faces Scrutiny

What happened

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Visit Isle of Man, the tourism arm of the island's Department for Enterprise, has spent £173,707.35 on influencers and content creators since 2021 67813. The figure covers content fees plus trip expenses such as travel, accommodation, food, drink and activities 167. Spread across five years, that works out to an average of roughly £34,700 annually — a relatively small line item in a tourism economy that generated more than £400m from overnight visitors last year, according to Visit Isle of Man chief executive Deborah Heather 11.

The disclosure has prompted debate, reflected across the BBC, Manx Radio, 3FM, Isle of Man Today and Manx.News, over whether the spending represents good value for taxpayers 1267813. The agency currently has two active influencer agreements: Amy Hulley (@amyenvoyage), whose content centres on luxury travel and has around 439,000 followers, and Alice Smith (@adventuresofalicee), who covers outdoor adventure and nature with about 109,000 followers 7913. Both are scheduled to visit the island in September 2026 to promote its "shoulder season" offer outside the peak summer months 16913.

Visit Isle of Man works through London-based PR agencies to arrange these partnerships on a case-by-case basis. Lexington Communications handled the work until July, when Lansons took over 68913. There is no standalone influencer policy; instead, prospective creators are assessed against criteria including audience demographics, content relevance, brand alignment, engagement levels and their ability to "authentically represent" the island 71113.

Notably, Locate Isle of Man — the separate agency tasked with attracting new residents and businesses rather than tourists — recorded no influencer spending over the same five-year period 16713. It did, however, take part in elements of a 2025 Visit Isle of Man campaign featuring creator Amy Jackson-Westwick, whose content touched on lifestyle and relocation themes relevant to people considering a move to the island 16713.

The case for and against

Visit Isle of Man frames influencer work as an evolution of traditional marketing rather than a novelty. Heather told Manx Radio that partnering with creators who have a relevant following is "just a different way about thinking" compared with older advertising models, and that the island "needs to be able to compete" with rival destinations using the same tools 1012. She also pointed to the economics behind the strategy: cruise passengers generated about £2.3m for the island in 2025, compared with more than £400m from overnight visitors, reinforcing the agency's rationale for using influencers to encourage longer, higher-spending stays, particularly in quieter months 11.

The counterargument, aired most fully in the BBC's coverage, centers on measurement rather than the legitimacy of the channel itself 1211. Frank Schuengel, a former Douglas councillor and digital content creator, said influencer marketing is "almost inevitable" today, but that his "only concern" is whether the right metrics are being used to select creators 11. He noted that some islanders already promote the Isle of Man for free, and said he had previously discussed working with government tourism bodies but hesitated over accepting payment because it could compromise the independence his own audience values 11.

On the other side of that argument, travel influencer Daniel Herszberg — who has more than 68,000 Instagram followers — told the BBC his 2024 visit produced one of his most viral reels of the year, along with a widely shared article about the island's food scene, and that followers had messaged him about trips planned after seeing his content 11. That is evidence of engagement, but it stops short of showing how many actual bookings or visitor nights resulted.

Where the reporting agrees

Across all thirteen accounts, the core facts are consistent and uncontested. Visit Isle of Man spent £173,707.35 on influencers and related trip costs between 2021 and the present, disclosed via a Freedom of Information request 1267891113. The total includes both content fees and hospitality costs like travel, food, and accommodation 167813. There are currently two active influencer agreements, with Amy Hulley and Alice Smith, both scheduled for a September 2026 visit tied to shoulder-season promotion 167913. Every outlet also confirms that Locate Isle of Man, unlike Visit Isle of Man, spent nothing on influencer contracts, though it touched a related campaign involving relocation content 16713. The switch in PR agencies from Lexington Communications to Lansons is reported identically by the BBC, Manx Radio and Manx.News 68913. This uniformity suggests the story originates from a single FOI disclosure that all outlets are reporting faithfully, with little independent reporting layered on top beyond the BBC's added interviews.

Where it doesn't

The disagreements are minor and mostly cosmetic, but worth noting. Outlets round the headline figure differently: Manx Radio and its sister Gold service describe it as "more than £173,000" or "over £170,000" 691012, 3FM rounds up to "almost £174,000" 8, while Isle of Man Today and Manx.News state the precise £173,707.35 or £173,700 figure 713. None of these is inaccurate — they are simply different levels of precision — but a reader skimming headlines alone could come away with a mistaken impression that estimates vary in substance.

A more meaningful divergence is in framing and depth. The BBC's coverage is the only account that goes beyond the FOI numbers to interview outside voices — Frank Schuengel and Daniel Herszberg — turning the story into an explicit value-for-money debate 1211. Manx Radio, by contrast, split its coverage into two separate pieces: one focused purely on the spending figure 69, and a second built around Deborah Heather's defence of the strategy 1012, without incorporating critical outside commentary in either. 3FM and Manx.News stuck closest to the bare disclosure, presenting it largely as a straightforward spending story rather than a debate 813. Isle of Man Today sits in between, including procedural detail — follower counts, selection criteria, the absence of a standalone policy — without editorializing on whether the spend was justified 7.

There is also a subtle attribution gap: Heather's claim that hosted-influencer spending flows back into the local tourism industry, and her comparison of cruise-passenger versus overnight-visitor revenue, appear only in the BBC's reporting 11, not corroborated elsewhere. That does not make the figures suspect, but it means readers relying on Manx Radio, 3FM, or Manx.News alone would miss this part of the agency's economic justification entirely.

The verdict the evidence supports

Taken together, the sources establish clearly what was spent and on whom, but not what it achieved. No outlet — including the BBC, which pushed hardest on the value-for-money question — reports booking numbers, referral traffic, or revenue directly attributable to the influencer campaigns. What exists instead is a mix of plausible strategic reasoning from Visit Isle of Man, anecdotal evidence of viral content and follower messages from one creator, and pointed but reasonable skepticism from a critic who himself works in the same space. Given that no source produces outcome data — bookings, click-throughs, or incremental visitor spending — the honest conclusion is that the strategy is defensible in principle but unproven in practice. The reporting collectively shows a transparent disclosure of costs without a matching disclosure of returns, which is the actual story here: not that the island misspent public money, but that it has not yet shown what the money bought.