The historic Steveston Museum is now home to the new Steveston Visitor Centre.
It was high-time Tourism Richmond had its own permanent visitor centre, said Ed Gavsie, Tourism Richmond's director of visitor and partner services.
"We have never had a permanent, yearround visitor centre before," he said.
"Tourism Richmond felt it was very important to have a permanent visitor centre; our numbers tell us tourists are coming here in greater numbers, but we want to know what they are doing once they get here.
"We want repeat business, so this new visitors centre should help us track what our visitors are doing so we can better serve them."
The Steveston Visitor Centre is open year round and provides information about every-thing to do with tourism in Richmond and throughout B.C.
"We will still continue to operate our kiosk on Bayview Street, as well as our Deas Island Tourism Richmond Visitor Info Centre (north of the George Massey Tunnel), but those will be open seasonally," he explained.
"To give you an example of how much traffic the visitor centres have, last year the kiosk in Steveston had more than 12,000 visits and the one near the tunnel had just over 9,000 visits."
Gavsie said many of the city's visitors are from Alberta, Washington State and various areas in B.C.
"We are getting more and more visitors from Oregon. I received two emails in just one day from fans of the show Once Upon a Time asking us where it is being filmed and can they visit the site where it's filmed," Gavsie said.
"We also get a lot of tourists who come for our Asian culture, dining and shopping experience."
Since the Steveston centre had its "soft" opening on May 14, the staff has already seen high volumes of visitors from all over the world.
"We are gearing up for our high traffic times which are after school gets out through to Labour Day," Gavsie said. "At our peak, we will have a manager and three visitor counsellors; two at the counter and one person strolling all over Steveston asking visitors if they need any information.
"During the summer months, we've hired university students, all of whom are Richmond residents."
All visitor counsellors have gone through a rigorous two-day training session.
"An important facet of their training is to learn how to gather statistics so we can better serve our visitors," he added.
Tourism Richmond celebrates the grand opening of the new permanent visitor centre located inside the Steveston Museum Saturday, June 23.
According to Tourism Richmond, it's customary in Canada to welcome new neighbours with baked goods, therefore the centre will be offering a slice of pie to everyone who comes in to say hello.
The pies are courtesy of dozens of local restaurants and bakeries that are taking part in the 1st Annual Richmond Perfect Pie Contest.
A panel of local celebrity judges (including Lindsay Anderson, the Richmond foodie blogger and Tourism Richmond's CEO Tracy Lakeman) will judge each pie on its taste, presentation and creativity. The new Steveston Visitor Centre is located at 3811 Moncton Street.
The centre is open seven days a week throughout the summer.
In addition to the year round visitor services, where guests can get information and book accommodation and attractions, the Steveston Museum building will continue to host the post office, plus new services including faxing, emailing, scanning or copying.
DAY'S EVENTS
- Free horse and carriage rides, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Ribbon cutting ceremony, 11: 30 a.m.
- Richmond Perfect Pie Contest, noon
- Complimentary pie tasting, begins at 12: 15 p.m.
- Free passes to the Gulf of Georgia Cannery
For more information about the new visitor centre, visit www.tourismrichmond.com.
Statistics
(Courtesy of Tourism Richmond)
- In 2010 (excluding the Olympic months), visitors stayed an average of 1.54 nights.
- In 2011, its target was 1.75 nights, but its actual at year end was above that at 1.88.
- Its overall goal is to reach 2.54 nights.
- Tourism in Richmond is the largest industry (retail, accommodations, attractions, transportation, etc.).
- Tourism in Richmond results in $650 million in economic output.
- Tourism in Richmond directly employs more than 7,400 people earning $220 million in wages.
- Tourism in Richmond contributes $250 million in non-accommodation spending.
- Over four million visitors stay overnight in Richmond per year.
- Tourism in Richmond generates $135 million in taxes broken down as: $76 million in federal, $44 million provincial and $15 million municipal.
- Tourism in Richmond supported a 123 per cent increase in the number of hotel rooms over the last 15 years.
For more information, visit www.tourismrichmond.ca
