The Gibsons and District Chamber of Commerce is hoping for a one-time cash injection of $20,000 from the Town as it prepares to move into a larger space at Sunnycrest Mall and change the way it delivers visitor services.
The Chamber runs the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in the Landing under a $45,000 contract with the Town, which also provides $2,500 for the Travel Ambassadors program on BC Ferries. The Chamber also manages the Visitor Information Park at the top of the Langdale bypass.
Chamber president William Baker outlined plans for expanding visitor services at the March 7 committee of the whole meeting. He said the Chamber plans to keep operating out of the aging VIC building until the Town decides whether it will be renovated or demolished, but they also want to look at ways to reach more people – including taking the VIC to tourists, instead of waiting for tourists to drop in.
Baker said they’ve been given a portable kiosk which can act as a mobile VIC. “We would have it part time up at the Visitor Information Park, so when people come up to the park off the ferry and stop in they actually have someone there to help them,” he said. “We can pick up and move down to Holland Park, to the Public Market, or wherever tourists are gathering and need information … It provides us with a huge amount of flexibility.”
The Chamber is also hoping to expand the Travel Ambassadors program beyond BC Ferries and into the community.
Baker said making a full range of visitor services available at Sunnycrest will help catch travellers who are arriving by bus or RV. “One of the reasons we want to have a visitor centre up in the mall is because of the buses and the trailers and the RVs that can’t currently park down in Lower Gibsons … As those tours increase over the coming years we felt having something there for that market would be very, very useful.” It would also benefit mall retailers, according to Baker, by bringing in potential shoppers.
Coun. Stafford Lumley asked whether those initiatives would be better handled through Sunshine Coast Tourism, which also gets funding from local governments as well as money though an accommodation tax.
Baker said he expects that will happen down the road, as other VIC contracts expire and Sunshine Coast Tourism ramps up its operation. “They’re not organized yet in order to do it – I think it’s going to take them a couple of years. Ultimately, that would make sense.”
Baker also told councillors that in addition to expanding visitor services, the Chamber wants its new office to become a community hub with boardroom and other space available to rent short term, and education and other workshops offered for businesses and entrepreneurs. He also said although it’s a bigger space, they’ve secured terms with the mall’s owners that will ultimately mean a lower net rent and a saving on costs for storing items they don’t have room for in their current office.
Mayor Wayne Rowe was non-committal on the extra funding, telling Baker, “We’ll have further discussions on this when it comes up in budget items.”
Gibsons council’s next budget meeting is set for April 4.
