Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

The Denmark Chamber of Commerce will run the Denmark Visitor Centre for the next three years as a ‘dynamic’ shared space to welcome tourists and the community.

The Denmark Shire Council made the decision to hand over the running of the visitor centre at the September 21 meeting in line with the draft Sustainable Tourism Strategy.

The Shire will kick in $95,000 to the Chamber for administering the centre.

The service will include the community-valued face-to-face model of visitor servicing.

For the time being, a paid coordinator will continue to take charge along with volunteers on a four-hourly five day a week basis.

Plans are to expand this to two coordinators in the short term and later to six days a week.

The community preference for face-to-face visitor servicing was identified through the Draft Tourism Strategy data collection.

This document was unanimously adopted at the September 19 meeting.

Recently the Chamber also gained control of the assets of Great Southern Tourism Events.

This comprises the intellectual property of ‘Discover Denmark’, the operation of the accommodation booking system, Bookeasy, for Denmark providers, the domain name www.denmark.com.au and Taste Great Southern, among others.

These were Denmark’s contribution to the failed Amazing South Coast Inc.

Chamber chief executive Sumer Addy said DCC would move into the visitor centre in coming months.

She foreshadowed an expansion of the Chamber’s services given the space available and that being shared with ‘like-minded’ organisations targeting Denmark’s economic growth.

“We acknowledge we have a growing community and that we lack some services,” Ms Addy said. Not-for-profits such as Albany Business Centre, and others, would be able to offer services one day a week or as required.

Ms Addy said it had been identified that 10 CEOs travelled from Denmark every day to Albany.

“We want to harness those people into the centre at least once a week so they can get to know our community better,” she said.

“It’s not just going to be a visitor centre but a vibrant space to welcome tourists and community.”

The in-principle three-year service agreement between the Shire and Chamber comes after the Chamber put forward a formal proposal to the Shire in July.

It followed a temporary agreement for visitor servicing between the two parties made in November last year.

After the closure of the visitor centre last year the Chamber put forward a Discover Denmark model of visitor servicing through businesses with ‘ambassadors’ key to the operation.

This did not offer face-to-face visitor servicing through the visitor centre.

The Chamber believed at the time this was the most cost-effective option, but the local tourist industry wanted the visitor centre open.

Shire chief executive David Schober said the council had been impressed by the hard work put in by Chamber representatives to put together a proposal which aligned with the Sustainable Tourism Strategy.

The Chamber had shown flexibility and consultation with key stakeholders.

“The Chamber has demonstrated their capacity to manage current levels of visitor demand at the DVC and we look forward to seeing what they will do to further activate the centre into a hub of activity,” Mr Schober said.

The Shire is due to consider a new agreement regarding the staffing at the visitor centre in November.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 30 September 2021.