Guests to Salmon Arm looking for the lowdown on things to see and do in the area will have to search somewhere other than the city’s Visitor Information Centre.
The Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce-run facility’s last day of operation was on Tuesday, Aug. 25. As of Wednesday morning, the downtown Visitor Information Centre (VIC) office, located in the old courthouse building at the corner of Hudson Avenue and Shuswap Street, sat empty.
In May of this year, City of Salmon Arm council chose to terminate the city’s contract with the chamber for visitor information services, which the chamber had provided for about 25 years.
Read more: COVID-19: Salmon Arm council to terminate contract for Visitor Information Centre
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The decision to close the VIC followed a city tourism services review that determined digital marketing to be the future.
At the May 25, 2020 meeting of council, Coun. Chad Eliason suggested a request for proposals could be issued in the 2021 for the provision of visitor information services.
“After the summer season is over and the summer students are done, then we move into a period where we’ll be able to sit back, reflect and then ask for proposals (for providing visitor information services in the future) and who’s best to provide that service and what that service looks like,” said Eliason.
The city paid quarterly installments of $34,000 to the chamber for operation of the VIC.
