’Burra info centre faces shorter season

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’Burra info centre faces shorter season

KORUMBURRA’S visitor information centre will only open from December 1 to the week after Easter under a proposal by South Gippsland Council.
Council officers have recommended the centre become seasonal, while council will maintain a fully accredited centre in Foster.
That is the recommendation before council’s meeting tomorrow (Wednesday).
On June 28, 2017, council voted to defer consideration of the Korumburra centre after officers advised council to vote to close it, due to the higher cost of running the centre compared to the Foster centre as a result of lower patronage.
The latest proposed change will save council $100,000 a year.
Korumburra Business Association president Noelene Cosson said the result was “probably the best outcome we could expect for the Korumburra Information Centre”.
“We have to remember the recommendation prior to this was the Korumburra Information Centre would have closed its doors back on July 1, 2017 had the KBA not fought for a transition plan,” she said.
“Now the recommendation is for the centre to become a seasonal centre open from 1st December until one week after Easter each year.”
Should council adopt the recommendation before it, the service will be uninterrupted until after Easter 2019.
“This is almost two years longer than we were going to have and it will still be operational over the peak period from there,” Ms Cosson said.
“We feel like we have been listened to and now have achieved a satisfactory result with an extensive transition plan in place that will commence from June, with an opportunity for volunteers to be involved and become tourism ambassadors.”
Ms Cosson said the association’s campaign to save the centre was not just about Korumburra but tourism for the whole of South Gippsland.
“Korumburra is considered the gateway to South Gippsland and it makes great sense to have an information centre at the gateway,” she said.
“We have to accept the way people source their travel information has changed over the years with technology and there are probably better ways to spend the budget allocation rather than paying for staff to operate a centre eight hours a day, 364 days a year.”
Ms Cosson said the association was working closely with council’s economic development and tourism manager Renae Littlejohn to achieve the best outcome in relation to tourism for the Korumburra area and to assist with tourism for South Gippsland.
“We do feel Korumburra itself has a good presence on the tourism scale with the Korumburra Tourist Brochure that can be found in many of our shops as well as the visitkorumburra.com.au website, Korumburra Town App and continually promoting Korumburra via social media,” she said.

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Posted by on May 29 2018. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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