Increasing tourist numbers and long-standing pressure from local businesses for a visitor information office in Katoomba town centre have sparked the call for a pop-up office during spring.
Greens ward 1 council candidate Kerry Brown said “a pop-up information office in one of the empty shops in Civic Place owned by council would greatly benefit our visitors and local businesses over this busy season. We have 3.5 million visitors a year”.
“The pop-up could be a pilot for a permanent information centre with toilets and parking near the entry to town that is standard in every other tourism town in Australia.”
Ms Brown described working as one of the volunteer gardeners in Katoomba Street as “an eye opener. We are de facto tourist guides for a constant stream of enquiries – where is the tourism information, toilets, Three Sisters, a good place to eat, live music tonight and so on.”
Anna Dohnt, owner of Katoomba’s Fair Trade Shop said: “Our shop at the front of Civic Place operates daily as a default tourist information office.
“Visitors are surprised to discover they must go to Echo Point for the real office. None of them know about the Cultural Centre right behind us or that it has a viewing platform looking over Katoomba and the Jamison Valley.”
Information analyst and former Winter Magic director Warren Ross said "for most visitors their first experience of Katoomba is of being lost”.
“Visitors come and go with no experience of our talented local artists and musicians. Even the Cultural Centre is concealed from visitors across a civic wasteland of inadequate signage, empty shops and red pillars that scream Coles.
“A much needed information centre would also serve as a vital marketing and promotional tool to the local community.”
Ms Brown said that Blackheath, Leura and Wentworth Falls also need information offices or kiosks near their train stations. “Tourism is the main employer of the upper mountains. We must service it properly.”
