This fall the cottage funding ran out and the Chamber wrung its hands a little about what to do. Marcus Hondro, the new editor of The Undercurrent, suggested in an editorial that Bowen Islanders step up and welcome people to the island. If you see someone wandering lost around the village, give them a hand. A kind of citizen-based welcoming committee, if you will.
I liked the idea, because the truth is that is what happens anyway. I don't think Marcus was calling for that as an actual strategy so much as he was recognizing that this is what we do as islanders, friendly people, we are.
Today, Daniel Heald, the head of the Chamber, wrote a letter in The Undercurrent though that basically rejected that approach as asking too much of islanders and he concluded by saying:
The answer is for less “kumbaya” and a more professional management of the visitor through appropriate Municipal funding.Now I don't begrudge the visitor centre the funding they get for the service they offer, but I do have a problem with having our visitors "professionally managed" as they arrive on the island. I would hate to think that that was being done to the 18,000 that stopped in this summer. When I go to a place to visit, I HATE being professionally managed. I like being welcomed by genuine local residents, shown the ropes, maybe even offered a cost-free way to spend my time in the place.
Neighbourliness is not "kumbaya." It's actually what makes our community a pleasant place to visit. So the answer is for MORE people to welcome visitors AND for a visitor centre that offers good information to people, answers their questions and helps them find what they are looking for. Let's professionally manage our businesses and welcome our visitors instead. Let's just be a community, and not a Big Box Island Community Experience.
Of course we should all offer to help out disoriented visitors in the cove. I do, you do, all of us do. But the fact is, we're NOT down there when our guests wander off the capilano by the thousands each Saturday and Sunday. The library staff and volunteers are now inundated, and that is not what they're getting paid for (or not) down there. This is not about managing people and creating generic experiences for them, it is about recognizing that we are now a popular enough destination that this is a necessary service, and funding it appropriately. Until we have a citizens's hi-there-how's-it-going group down there, we are simplyoOffloading the responsibility onto librarians. This is not fair. I'm with Heald.
ReplyDeleteJames, I'm not saying we don't need a visitor's centre. I'm saying we don't need to professionally manage people. Do you see the both/and in my post?
ReplyDeleteAnother way of asking it is, when you go to visit a place, how do you like to be "professionally managed?"
This is also where I get to say that some of my best friends work in the visitor's centre. They are great young people who love the island and are terrific ambassadors for our place, and the centre provides good temporary employment for them.
So, basically, encouraging my usual grey take on things. Black and white is tiring me out.
Point taken. See, to me, it feels like you are reading too much black and white in Heald's words. All he's referencing with "professional management of the visitor" is people who are paid to help them. I don't think he's suggesting that we funnel them into paid experiences like, god help us, a Kaui "activity broker."
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to admit I read too much into Daniel's words. Boy, did they trigger me. I guess I'd love to know what he means.
ReplyDeleteStill what arises in me is the question, how do we welcome people to our island? Simple really, but could be the topic of a conversation at an upcoming Open Space.
As always, thanks James, for wading in.