In recent years, one of the challenges facing the City of Estevan has been finding a tenant for the former concession area in the Estevan Leisure Centre.
It made no sense for the city to have two concessions in close proximity, with one in the leisure centre and another at Affinity Place. And since the concession at Affinity Place was newer and larger, and with more traffic, the closure of the leisure centre concession was inevitable.
Since that time, that old concession area has been used at the information desk for leisure services, but that only lasted a few months before the information desk was returned to its previous location, closer to the entrance to the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre. Then it became a small-scale concession last summer, where weight room and pool users could purchase snacks and drinks.
Neither idea panned out, and the area remained largely shuttered.
The downside, of course, is that a space at the heart of the leisure centre was unused. We want to see lots of people making use of our leisure centre. It’s a great facility. And it didn’t look good to have a closed area at the heart of the facility.
Hopefully, the new idea for the concession area will pan out.
The City of Estevan is going to shift Estevan’s Visitor Information Centre from the log cabin structure west of the city to the former concession site.
Numbers have been waning at the information centre. They dropped from 2,097 in 2016 to 1,197 in 2017. Most of the people who went there last year were there to take an energy tour, or use the washroom facilities.
These tourism information areas are becoming rarer. Most people now turn to online information and apps when researching tourism attractions for a region. They’re using online maps rather than the traditional paper maps. (Although online maps aren’t as reliable as some would have you believe).
So it makes little sense in this day and age to have a building dedicated to tourism services. You can advocate for those who aren’t technologically savvy, or who prefer the services of a traditional tourism booth, but there still has to be enough traffic to justify having a booth. Estevan does not have that.
A shift in location for the information centre makes sense for one more reason: it could be open throughout the year inside the leisure centre.
The information centre was open for about 3 1/2 months per year. We’re blessed to have a number of late spring and summer tourist attractions, ranging from auto racing to live theatre, and camping to boating and fishing, among others.
But the fall, winter and early spring months offer a lot as well. We would be well-served to have a visitor information centre that is open throughout the year, even if it’s open during evenings and weekends.
Having a visitor information centre that is open in the leisure centre during hockey tournaments and other special events at Affinity Place would be advantageous. People who come to the city will have a place to turn for information on where to eat, where to shop and more.
A visitor information centre inside the leisure centre represents a step forward.
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