Denmark Visitor Centre will remain closed until a tourism strategy is developed for Shire

The Denmark Visitor Centre will remain closed until the Shire of Denmark develops a tourism strategy to ensure a sustainable future.

At the Shire’s council meeting on October 20, councillors decided they would commit to a tourism strategy with the aim of engaging local people with knowledge of tourism within the community.

The tourism strategy is expected to take 12 months to complete, with the core objectives to include engagement with people within the industry and the town’s community.

The Shire has continued discussions with Denmark Tourism Inc, expressing the need to work collaboratively on re-opening the visitor centre.

DTI declined to accept the lease offer of eight months, passed at last month’s council meeting, for several reasons including difficulty to gain membership numbers over a short period.

The Shire has accepted that position and asked DTI board members to remain active participants on behalf of the tourism industry.

The group wants to establish a memorandum of understanding with Green Skills to collaborate, whereby they would provide expertise and experience around the development of the environmental aspects of an attraction project and in training volunteer “Denmark guides”.

Shire of Denmark president Ceinwen Gearon said they needed to ensure the way forward was sustainable and used evidence to support investment in tourism.

“It is important to have unbiased information and strong community engagement. To this end we urge the industry and community to be part of the process,” she said.

“We appreciate the pressures that are on all parties who ultimately want the same objective — the best for our community.”