Merritt city council wants to discuss its new Visitor Services Network program with Destination BC (DBC) before moving ahead with implementation, believing the current BC Visitors Centre should be kept open in some capacity.

In January the visitor centre in Merritt will close as DBC is not renewing a contract to provide visitor services at the exit 286 site.

Instead, the provincial organization has added Merritt to its Visitor Services Network, which involves providing the city with $25,000 per year for the next four years for visitor services at a community-based level.

Council was expected to move forward on Oct. 10 with an implementation plan through DBC, designating the Baillie House as the new primary location for visitor services. However, that motion was deferred to a committee of the whole meeting to address questions such as costs, the lack of space at that location and the desire to see the current visitors centre remain open.

“We felt that the Ministry [of Tourism, Arts and Culture] really don’t understand how vital 286 is to this community and how vital it is to people on the highway travelling,” Coun. Mike Goetz told the Herald.

Due to an increase in online trip planning, DBC has been transitioning away from operating provincial visitor centres, like the one at exit 286, in favour of a model where communities are in charge of tourism services.

Currently, the provincial body works with 111 B.C. communities as members of its network program.

Before giving the city a $25,000 grant as the newest member of the network DBC needs to know the sponsor organization for visitor services, the building that will house such services and how the city plans to deliver these services.

In a municipal report to city council prepared for the Oct. 10 regular meeting, staff recommended Tourism Merritt as the sponsor, the Baillie House as the location. The report also indicated tourism information would be provided through a mix of both face-to-face interaction and online platforms.

City councillors, however, don’t think the Baillie House can handle the total amount of visitors Merritt receives.

The Baillie House. Emily Wessel/Herald

“I think the Baillie House could take on a piece of this, but I don’t think they’re big enough, and the area around them isn’t big enough to take on all of it,” Coun. Linda Brown said at the council meeting.

In 2016, the number of visitors to Merritt’s BC Visitor Centre outweighed the Baillie House by a wide margin. There were 114,268 guests at that site compared to 24,614 at the Baillie House, according to the staff report.

“The Baillie House would never be able to compliment everything that comes up at 286 and if we lose the 286, we’re going to lose a lot of people that come to this community,” Goetz told the Herald. “They’re just going to blast right through.”

Council could theoretically set up visitor services in the soon to be closed BC Visitors Centre at exit 286 rather than the Baille House, but the provincial government owns the building and the land around it.

Goetz said if that council wanted to go this route, the province would have to sell the building or gift it to the municipality.

“We have to meet with the ministry and everything before we apply for that grant because we don’t know [if] you go ahead and apply for the grant you’ve said ‘OK, that’s fine, you can shut down 286,’” said Goetz.

A committee of the whole meeting with the Ministry of Tourism has not yet been set up, but is in the works, Goetz told the Herald.

“We’re holding off on the grant until we can have a committee of the whole meeting with the ministry, Baillie House and the City,” said Goetz.

The Baillie House on Voght Street is a historic building, which the city uses as a tourist information centre.