Online bookings challenge regional visitor information centres

With visitors increasingly making use of the internet for information and bookings, Western Australia' regional visitor and tourism information centres are struggling with declining revenues.

As a result, the ABC has reported that some visitor information centres (VICs) are only opening up for the high season, while others are looking at new ways to survive.

With most of Western Australia's centres funded by local government, others are not-for-profit based.

The City of Bunbury's visitor centre has seen revenue more than halve in four years to $18,818 in 2013/14.

The City spends about $300,000 a year running the centre and has decided to keep it at its current location for another two years.

City of Bunbury Community Development Director Stephanie Addison-Brown told the ABC “we'll be obviously looking at our budgets, paring back any discretionary spend and making sure we're as lean as we can be.

"It's a trend we're seeing all over."

Following the Busselton Visitor Centre relocation to the city's foreshore in 2013, foot traffic more than doubled to in excess of 200,000 annual visits while further south, the Augusta-Margaret River Tourism Association and Geographe Bay Tourism Association have agreed to merge from July 2015.

Geographe Bay Tourism Association Chief Executive Sharna Kearney said the move was aimed at removing duplication.

Kearney told the ABC “we can now streamline those activities and the savings that we have from that can go back in to helping support visitor servicing and destination marketing.”

Kearney said visitor centres were a vital service but they were not profit-making in their own right, adding “they play such an important role in terms of increasing the spend and length of stay of visitors to the region.

"Unfortunately the visitor centres don't see that benefit back directly, it gets dispersed throughout the region and into our businesses."

The Western Australian Government allocated $2.9 million over four years to regional visitor centres in the 2013/14 budget, but the money is yet to be spent.

The Tourism Council of Western Australia (TCWA) is concerned over a lack of detail about how and when the money will be spent.

TCWA Chief Executive Evan Hall explains “the current situation for a lot of visitor centres is dire."

Hall added that some centres in smaller areas had already closed, and he feared there could be more.

Evans added “if we don't get that investment coming through from the Royalties for Regions funding and some matching dollars from local government and get that consolidation happening, we are afraid some of the smaller visitor centres will start dropping off.

"Without that extra investment they can't do the things like upgrade their facilities or start to merge their operations together."

Recently appointed Western Australian Tourism Minister Kim Hames admitted the project had been delayed, telling the ABC “due to the large number of visitor centres and the complexity of issues they face, the project has taken longer than initially planned.

"The Government has engaged with over 140 stakeholders to determine the best possible use of the money."

Image shows the Busselton Visitor Centre.

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