Merchants may be the last hope to opening a visitor’s information centre in Black Diamond this season.
The Town of Black Diamond is putting a call out to local merchants, preferably those open during the day and night, to house a visitor information centre from May long weekend until the end of August.
The Town decided not to incur the expenses required to operate a centre this year and is offering to provide pamphlets and other materials to a suitable merchant willing to step forward to open a small section of their businesses for the centre this season.
“The Town doesn’t have the dollars to put into that at this point, nor do we have the space that would be required for parking and running operations of the visitor information centre,” said Black Diamond Mayor Sharlene Brown. “The Town has chosen not to open up a visitor information centre until we get some further information.”
The information centre has been located in Turner Valley since 2009, an initiative of the Diamond Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“There was no visitor information centre previously,” said Bev Geier, the chamber’s president. “That was why the chamber decided to build one is because it promotes businesses. There was nothing like it (in the area).”
Early last year, the chamber had planned to relocate the 1800s style wooden shack from Turner Valley to land along a busy stretch of the highway in Black Diamond to increase the centre’s visibility, yet the move was cancelled due to expenses, sustainability and logistics.
Last fall, the chamber agreed the centre was too expensive and too much work for the five-member executive, most who are independent business owners, to continue operating.
Geier said she had hoped the Town of Black Diamond, which contains the majority of the two community’s businesses, would take over the centre.
“We’re very disappointed that the Town of Black Diamond didn’t see the vision and that it would be beneficial to the businesses, tourism, travel – all of those things that are going to be affected by it not being around,” she said.
Brown said the centre would have to be accredited for the Town of Black Diamond to operate it.
Brown said there are a number of reasons why the existing centre doesn’t meet accreditation standards, including the lack of electricity and washrooms.
“That building doesn’t have the capacity to hold those at this point,” she said. “To put the services in, it’s a large amount of money that we would have to plan for.”
Brown said if the Town took on the responsibility of operating a visitor information centre, it would have to find a location and money to service and staff it.
“At this time it’s off the table for the Town of Black Diamond to be able to make that work,” she said.
Brown said administration will have to look at a number of options regarding tourism for the community.
“There is different online tools you can utilize as well,” she said. “Is that a better way going forward than having a building and operations? There is a lot of pieces to look at from a tourism aspect if you are going to look at tourism as a whole.”
Brown said the Town would have to compare if a centre is worth more than an app or functional website.
“It depends on how much effort Black Diamond wants to put on a tourism piece and we’re not clear on that yet,” she said.
“We are part of the Cool Little Towns initiative and we are doing stuff around marketing, a visitor information pamphlet and there is other pieces there that we are working on. What is the most useful effective tourism dollars is basically what we’re looking at.”
Brown said while the centre has been located in Turner Valley, it has had an impact on Black Diamond business.
“It’s an important service to businesses and it’s an important service to the Kananaskis or Anchor D or other tourism type establishments,” she said. “It’s typically how they get the word out there.”
Operation of the centre was supported with $5,000 annually each from the Town of Black Diamond and Turner Valley.
The Town of Black Diamond will place that money into reserves for future tourism initiatives this year.
Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck said the Town is currently seeking another venue for tourists to stop at this year, and will likely use the money towards that.
The previous visitor’s information centre structure is now available for sale at $12,000, or best offer, by calling 403-803-7298.
