The Ararat Rural City Council decided to relocate the town's visitor information centre at its council meeting on Tuesday, February 23.
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The relocation of the centre is part of a series of changes that will be made following the council's adoption of the proposed Visitor Servicing Model.
The centre will be moved from Ararat Railway Station to Ararat Art Gallery.
At the council meeting, Ararat Rural City Council chief executive Dr Tim Harrison said moving the centre away from the railway station would help the council expand the ways it connected with visitors.
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"There's a fair bit of evidence to suggest that visitor information centres are no longer the best way to cover business servicing," he said.
"So, we're trying to bring ourselves into the 21st century and look at look at better approaches and models to business servicing.
"What we intend to do is bring together an approach here that is pretty cost-effective still but gives us an opportunity to explore some of those other mechanisms for connecting with visitors when they come to our region.
"We have expressions of interest from 10 businesses that wish to become involved as tourism ambassadors, and they will essentially have a mini digital VIC (visitor information centre) in their businesses."
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Councillor Peter Beales moved the motion. He said Ararat Art Gallery would be a better place for the centre.
"At the railway station people can stop at the centre, get their information, and then they drive off to Great Western or wherever. They don't walk off into the town. If they stop there (at the Ararat Art Gallery) the town is right in their face," he said.
"I think the current location just doesn't fit the purpose. I think this new location is perfect."
In addition to relocating the centre, there are two other parts to the new Visitor Servicing Model.
These will involve the creation of a Tourism Ambassador Program and the development of digital visitor resources.
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Council has allocated $50,000 to developing these, with funds coming from what the council has saved through the Visitor Information Centre being closed during COVID-19.
Cr Gwenda Allgood said the new Visitor Servicing Model was more economically viable.
"I like the idea because we need to be a little bit more frugal without money. People can't just afford to have their rates keep going up," she said.
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