EUROBODALLA Shire Council says it did not recommend closing visitor centres in Batemans Bay and Narooma but rather proposed a range of options, including out-sourcing the services.
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Mayor Lindsay Brown has defended a draft report on the future of visitor centres, including options to establish a call centre or mobile services.
Visitor information centres with brochures and touch-screen web access, and an option to lease the centres out to the private or not-for-profit sector were also mooted in the report, which is now on display.
Cr Brown said visitor centres were more efficiently operated by not-for-profit or commercial organisations in other towns.
“The industry needs to consider this as an option, with council continuing to provide support in other ways,” he said.
“There is also clear evidence we should be looking at how to reallocate a greater proportion of the tourism budget to web and online activities.
“While visitor centres are important, they rank well below digital sources used to plan domestic travel.”
He said more than half of the $1.2 million tourism budget was spent on providing a service to an estimated five per cent of visitors.
“The number jumps up when we include phone and email, but overall it’s still a small percentage,” he said.
“The rest are finding information about Eurobodalla on websites and social media, by phone and email, from their friends and relatives, from places they’re staying at, from other tourism business, and from shops, cafes and petrol stations.”
Meanwhile, independent councillors Peter Schwarz and Neil Burnside said visitor centre revenue had fallen 30 per cent.
“As the president of the Narooma Chamber 20 years ago, the discussion of where the limited tourism dollar should be spent was always a topic,” Cr Burnside said.
“There were always two sides - those wanting more spent attracting people to our shire and those who favoured a major presence once the tourist arrived."
Cr Burnside said website, email and phone inquiries has increased dramatically.
“Only five per cent of visitors actually use our centres, so it's vital we address the problem now,” he said.
“We can't continue seeing revenue sliding, costs going up and valuable dollars taken away from the most important role the council has in tourism - getting people to come and visit our beautiful shire."
He encouraged residents to join the discussion.
"We want better bang for our buck,” Cr Burnside said.
Cr Schwarz said the issue had become more urgent in the digital age.
“In four years, traffic through the door has decreased by 30 per cent, as has revenue,” he said.
“Costs have changed only slightly and Narooma's centre has seen an increase in expenditure.
“Employee costs now represent 63 per cent of the centres' budgets.”