“For months we have been looking for a long-term, viable solution that would allow us to open the centre, but at the end of the day, we couldn’t find one,” said Hoare, the president of Central Coastal Tourism.
Central Coastal Tourism, the Town of Kensington and Kensington Area Chamber of Commerce entered into a partnership taking over the space at the old Kensington Railway station 18 months ago that housed the centre. The centre is set to leave the site in June.
Last season the centre was open seven days a week. This year Hoare was hoping a change in hours and number of staff would provide a feasible solution.
“We had gone through different scenarios of changing the hours open and staff numbers trying to see if any option could do the trick. It’s unfortunate, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
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This time last year, the partners in the Welcome Centre were fundraising to get it off the ground.
Now they are preparing to shut it down.
“It was a lot of work last year, we got off to a slow start, but we still had great support from all levels of government and the community. But at the end of the day, we realized that we needed a considerable amount of commission coming in to make it possible.
“Nobody felt that it was a sure thing.”
Hoare said it is disappointing to see it go.
“When we announced we weren’t reopening we did disperse information and links to information that businesses in the community can utilize during the tourist season,” added Hoare.
At the Kensington town council meeting recently, Mayor Rowan Caseley announced to council that the centre would be closing.
“The consensus is that it has reached the end of its usefulness,” said Caseley.
“We’ve struggled to find a workable plan, but I’m optimistic that out of this will come something positive.”
