Destination Osoyoos (DO) is welcoming the local community and visitors to the grand opening of the Osoyoos Visitor Centre under its operation. DO operated the centre in partnership with the province until they moved downtown about five years ago. They actually returned to the new location in November, but until now, they haven’t been ready to show it off. The centre provides retail in addition to the previous services. (Richard McGuire file photo)

 

Destination Osoyoos (DO) is getting ready to welcome the local community to a grand opening at its Osoyoos Visitor Centre at the intersection of Highways 97 and 3.

Although DO moved to the centre from its downtown location back in November, the event on Saturday, April 7 occurs as the centre is now ready for the tourist season.

“We were nowhere near ready to invite people into our home, so to speak,” said Kelley Glazer, DO’s executive director. “This is a much bigger building and we’re going to do retail in here now, so we needed to get our retail sorted out.”

For the past five years, DO has been operating from the building east of Town Square in the Osoyoos downtown. That building is now the home of Desert Sun Counselling and Resource Centre.

Not only did the old building have less space, but it had less visibility, saw less tourist traffic, had very little rack space and almost no retail.

Prior to the move downtown five years ago, DO was located at the Osoyoos Visitor Centre at the highway intersection in partnership with the province, but since that time the centre has been operated by the province.

“Now the province is 100 per cent out and we are 100 per cent in, so this is 100 per cent an Osoyoos Visitor Centre,” said Glazer.

DO will still receive a small amount of provincial funding to deliver visitor service under the Destination B.C. Visitor Services Network, Glazer said.

Added to the tourism and economic development roles that DO was carrying out from its downtown location will be a significant increase in its visitor services and retail offerings.

“We needed to ramp up in terms of creating relationships with brochure distribution organizations and making sure that we had all the information that a visitor coming through might possibly want,” said Glazer. “Before we were very limited.”

Last July, for example, the Destination Osoyoos office downtown might have received around 1,000 people, while the provincially run Osoyoos Visitor Centre would have received more than 10 times that many, Glazer said.

Handling its new responsibilities has meant a staff increase.

“At this point we’ve added two new full-time positions to our roster,” said Glazer. “Then we will have a minimum of three part-time positions that will run for the season.”

While the past few months have entailed getting the retail space in order and preparing for this year’s tourist season, there were no significant renovations required.

“This building was purposely built to do what we’re doing, so we didn’t really rearrange anything,” said Glazer.

The location at the intersection of important highways means it catches tourist traffic from all directions.

“This [building] is a bit of a crown jewel for our community,” said Glazer, who came to Osoyoos two years ago. “It’s an impressive building… I feel very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish by bringing it back into the fold of Osoyoos directly.”

Aside from promoting Osoyoos, Glazer said the centre will promote other regional attractions, events and activities.

“We’ve always had a regional role,” she said. “In our immediate area, Osoyoos is fortunate enough to have all the bedrooms, so to speak, for the area. There’s a great deal of interest and activity in the wineries and the surrounding area for hiking, fishing and all of that.”

Even promoting events in the Similkameen, such as the annual Barbecue King in Keremeos, helps to fill rooms in Osoyoos, she said.

The April 7 event gets underway at noon and will be more of an open house, without a ribbon cutting ceremony or speeches from dignitaries.

Glazer said the event is more about sharing the location with people in the community, whether they are permanent residents or just staying here in the short term.

Hotdogs and cake will be provided as quantities last, and there will be wine tasting offered by local producers.

“We want to acknowledge the First Nations culture in our community and how important it is,” said Glazer. “So, we’re showcasing the First Nations dancing and music.”

Those performances will be provided by the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.

Osoyoos Visitor Centre Grand Opening

Saturday, April 7, noon

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times