Kincardine's tourist booth moving back to Highway 21

After three years in downtown Kincardine, the municipality's tourist information centre is being moved back to Highway 21.

In committee-of-the-whole, Wednesday night (Feb. 1), clerk Donna MacDougall presented the staff recommendation: to lease office space beside the Service Ontario Centre, just north of KFC, on Highway 21, for the tourist booth, from May 1, 2017, to April 30, 2020, at a rate of $875 per month (HST excluded), with satellite tourism services offered in the downtown area at the Kincardine Arts Centre.

The lease rate includes snow removal, grass cutting, and taxes, with the municipality responsible for hydro and telephone/Internet costs, said MacDougall, adding that the building owner offered a five-year lease, but the deal is just for a three-year lease.

The current Welcome Centre is located at 777B Queen Street, with offices for the Kincardine Business Improvement Area (BIA) and the Kincardine and District Chamber of Commerce. The municipality moved its tourist booth there three years ago, but that lease terminates April 30, 2017.

In her report, MacDougall explained that staff had investigated various options for a highway location before recommending the same site where the tourist booth was located before it was moved downtown in 2014.

"While Canadian Tire and Sobeys expressed support for developing a partnership with the municipality, there is not sufficient room within their facilities to house tourism staff," stated MacDougall, in her report. "The airport had been put forward as an option; however, closer proximity to an urban area would be preferred for the main information centre. Opportunities for tourism partnerships with each of these, will continue to be explored by staff."

MacDougall also pointed out that when the centre was on the highway in 2013, the annual rent was $16,851, plus $6,767 for floor mats and a water cooler for use by the public, for a total of about $23,600. The cost of operations for 2015 in the downtown location was $24,483.45 including rent and telephone.

Deputy mayor Jacqueline Faubert said her preference was a more visible visitor information centre downtown but she lost that vote. However, she wondered if council should not have more discussion about using the airport terminal as a tourist booth.

"The stakeholders there would welcome the discussion," she said, "and we'd be using our own building so it would be more sustainable and cost-efficient."

Tourism co-ordinator Kelly McDonald said there was initial discussion about the airport as a tourist booth. "It's not the best location," she said. "We'd be sending people back into town. Even with the area we're considering, we have to send people back to town or the nearest artery into town."

She said there would be a staffed satellite location downtown during the summer months.

"I remember suggesting the use of the airport house as a tourist booth," said councillor Maureen Couture, "but then the house was demolished."

Councillor Laura Haight said she remembered back when there were no lights at the corner of Highways 9 and 21. The Town of Kincardine had an old school portable at the southwest corner of that intersection, which was used as a tourist booth.

"We lost that when the McDonald's Restaurant was built and the gas station," she said. "Then our tourist booth was located in a corner beside McDonald's. That summer we had the highest number of visitors we ever had, due to the high traffic area beside McDonald's and the gas station."

Haight said the location on Highway 21, north of the KFC, has never been an ideal spot for the tourist booth, but the municipality needs a presence on the highway because it is losing some of that valuable northbound traffic.

Committee-of-the-whole agreed with the recommendation for the tourist booth on Highway 21 and a smaller unit inside the arts centre. That was later endorsed by council.