Concerns are being raised over the closure of visitor information centres in Digby, N.S. and Pictou, N.S., which serve as entry points to the province by ferry.
Municipal leaders and tourism operators are now searching for a solution to save the information centres.
“We were completely surprised,” said Sandra Blandin, who works at the centre in Digby. “We expected maybe ours to be cut down, or the length of the season, but we were shocked that it was closing.”
Digby Mayor Ben Cleveland said he is disappointed with how it happened.
“They made a decision without consulting the community…I’ve been suggesting that we look at both visitor information centres over the last couple of years and I reached out to the province a number of years ago and didn’t get a response,” said Cleveland.
“I just recently reached out to our local MLA, saying let’s sit down and talk about this, but here we are.”
It’s a similar situation in Pictou, where the other provincial centre is closing. Both are entry points to Nova Scotia, with ferry runs between Digby and Saint John, and Caribou and Wood Islands, P.E.I.
But Patrick Sullivan of the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency said fewer people are visiting the centres; visits to provincial centres have dropped by about 40 per cent over the last 10 years.
“There’s lower traffic or lower visitors to all of our information centres across the province,” he said Friday. “Those two centres are well represented with other regional visitor information centres in the area.”
He said the two locations represent 6 per cent of all visitors, but 17 per cent of overall costs.
Sullivan also said technology needs are changing, with more people using their tablets or other mobile devices to look up tourist information while travelling. He said roughly 12,000 people stopped by the centre in Digby last year, compared to 2.7 million visits to NovaScotia.com.
But Linda Gates, who runs a business about 20 kilometres from the centre in Digby, said many of her customers are direct referrals from the tourist bureau.
“We have people that come in and say that they were here, stopped at the tourist bureau, and sometimes we even get calls from here saying that they’re here at the tourist bureau, do we have anything available for that particular evening,” said Gates.
Cleveland said the centre is a beautiful building and location with lots of opportunities, and he plans to follow up with the province.
“I would like to see maybe this building come back to the community, along with the land, along with the park, and work with us in identifying some uses.”
Sullivan said he would be happy to speak with the mayor, or anyone else who has ideas for the buildings.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jackie Foster
