New look service delivery for visitors

City of Mount Gambier will begin to implement a ‘hub and spoke’ visitor servicing model this month that will incorporate the Main Corner, Engelbrecht Cave, Umpherston Sinkhole and the Blue Lake Welcome Centre.

Council acknowledges that tourism has changed significantly since the Lady Nelson Visitor and Discovery Centre opened on Jubilee Highway East in 1986 and has endorsed a position to grow the city’s visitor economy by changing the way travellers experience and contribute to Mount Gambier.

General manager city infrastructure Barbara Cernovskis said Mount Gambier’s destination appeal was strong, and the time was right to consider the long term direction for visitor servicing in our city.

“This model represents a paradigm shift in the way we grow our visitor economy, one that prioritises traveller engagement with our visitor servicing team, industry connection and environmental stewardship,” she said.

“When current Engelbrecht Cave licensee Jan Coleman gave us notice that she was handing back the keys at the conclusion of her lease at the end of June, council decided to activate this site – one of our highest visited tourism sites – as the first ‘spoke’.”

The spoke site will be the first transition site of the hub and spoke model and provide cohesive storytelling, digital and physical visitor information and will be accessible to travellers seven days a week.

“Council will provide visitor servicing, tour guide experiences, Mount Gambier branded merchandise and light refreshments,” Ms Cernovskis said.

“A business development and implementation plan will guide the roll out and we will take a phased approach to the changes at the site. This will enable us to closely measure how things are going with the new model to inform our decision making and ensure best practice.”

Under the new visitor servicing plan, the Blue Lake Welcome Centre and Umpherston Sinkhole will follow as spoke sites.

“The Blue Lake Welcome Centre will remain a spoke site and continue to operate in its current capacity for now, with consideration to future increased activation at this site aligned with higher visitation periods,” Ms Cernovskis said.

Changes to the service model means that the current visitor centre at the Lady Nelson site will be repurposed, aligned with the Community Land Management Plan. Council is currently preparing a call out for Expressions of Interest (EOI) to seek community activation of the site, with a view to house the city’s creative industries and/or historic collections.