Tourism Valemount now managing Visitor Information Centre
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
The new year is bringing new changes to Valemount’s Visitor Information Centre (VIC). The Village has handed management of the centre to Tourism Valemount, a non-profit that promotes tourism in the Valemount area.
Located at 735 Cranberry Lake Road, the centre is in the same building as the Village offices.
The Village began operating the centre in 2018, when Wendy Dyson, the owner of Adventure Management Services, the company who previously ran the centre, retired.
In an email to The Goat, CAO Anne Yanciw said it is highly unusual for a visitor information centre to be run by the local government. Typically, they are managed by the municipality’s chamber of commerce, or a destination marketing organization – a type of non-profit which promotes tourism to an area – she said.
Village staff hope the change will translate to a financial gain for the Village, Yanciw added.
“We expect that the cost of a contract to provide the services will be less than the cost [for] the Village to staff and operate the VIC,” she said.
Tourism Valemount marketing director Marcie Down was unavailable for an interview by presstime. However, Yanciw said she hopes visitor information services will improve with Down at the helm.
“Tourism Valemount is first and foremost a tourism organization, with a passion for and experience in tourist services,” Yanciw added. “The Village has neither of those – we deliver water, sewer, roads and so on. We were not able to give VIC the love that Tourism Valemount will be able to.”