Mr. P.G. To Get Face Lift but Seasonal Centre to Close
Monday, April 16, 2012 @ 7:21 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Say goodbye to the seasonal Visitors Centre at Highway 16 and 97. Prince George City Council has voted in favour of closing that site and shift operations to the First Avenue site..
The First Avenue Visitor’s Centre is considered one of the top Visitor’s Centres in B.C, says Tourism P.G. Chief Executive Officer, Aiden Kelly, but the seasonal site is deteriorating both in the quality of the building and in the number of people who access that site.
Tourism Prince George presented four options to Council which includes relocating Mr. P.G. and giving him “a bit of a face lift” says Kelly. “One of the most important things about Mr. P.G. is no matter where he is, he has to be accessible because people like to stop to have their picture taken with him” says Kelly. The current plant is to move the community mascot to the opposite corner with an updated “welcome to P.G. “ sign as well as adding directions on how to find the visitors centre on First Avenue.
“I am pleased to hear we are thinking about refurbishing Mr. P.G., he is important to the community” said Councillor Frank Everitt.
Tourism Prince George would like to increase the hours of operations at the Visitors Centre on First, and would like to provide more options for connecting with visitors, “We are running two locations now, they are running good, but not great” says Kelly.
Rather than repair the existing site, Kelly says Tourism Prince George would like to close the 16 and 97 seasonal site, and shift operations to the 1st Avenue site, plus, use the Tourism Prince George vehicle to travel out to where visitors may be, to provide information on things that can be done in the region. “RVers are very active on Twitter” says Kelly, who says using technology can connect directly with those travellers and convince them to come to the community.
Councillor Brian Skakun says he is challenged with the thought of eliminating the seasonal site at highways 16 and 97 because as small as it is, RV traffic prefers to stop there because of the green space rather than the pavement, and rail traffic adjacent to the First Avenue location.
Councillor Murry Krause says the 16/97 corner is a prime location however he “agrees on the assessment of the quality of that site.”
“Certainly Mr P.G. is very 1960’s Mad Men look, but it is what it is, and I love him” said Mayor Shari Green.
Comments
Okay this is the excuse used to let some developer have that site. The sooner we look like Kelowna the better. As a long time developer in PG once said, green space is wasted space.
I think your right seamutt. Someone wants the property. The City always uses the excuse that the building is getting old, etc;
The majority of people who come to Prince George come from the surrounding areas like MacKenzie, McBride, Quesnel, and West of Prince George. These ;people come to Prince George mainly to shop. They are not tourists by any stretch of the imagination, however we have saw fit to assess them a hotel tax when they come to Prince George.
In addition we have the audacity to consider assessing a gas tax in addition to the hotel tax. I guess we want to gouge the hell out of our best customers.
Attendance was partially low because of the access issue.. If you headed from the south west you cant get out unless you go south and down Ferry.. Tourists wont know the way.
Where’s the 2 % tax on stopping to see Mr PG??! I haven’t lived in PG for 3 years now and I have to say I was seriously insulted to have to pay a 2 % tax to stay at the coast inn of the north…. I did NOT feel safe leaving the hotel, but yet I was “honoured” with paying the “tax” to stay in the sewer that Prince George has become.
You can bet I will NOT be promoting PG to anyone I know… in fact I’m a little embarrassed to what it has become…. SHAME on council for letting this happen…
Another dumb move by our current City Council! Most people,including City Council, know that the intersection of Highways 97 and 16 is the busiest intersection north of Hope. So what do we do? Close down the tourist information centre at that site! So Prince Georgian….another payback to someone!
This is an excellent location at a major intersection to promote our city but very poor access as is the case with other businesses in the area.
Seems to me that this is a mini RCMP office, lack of city maintenance necessitating a move to more expensive premises. First Avenue is not a logical alternative to north/south or west bound traffic and has minimal parking for large units.
Brian Skakum refers to RV traffic and Mr. PG. Why not find a niche across from Wallymart for Mr. PG? All or most tourists stop and shop there.
RVers are very active on Twitter??
I think Seamutt is making a good observation.
Someone stated that the property does not belong to the City and that the City is paying to lease it.
Whether that is true or not, there have been rumours for some time that the Casino will, in the near future, wish to expand its operations, likely to increase its capacity to draw some convention events. That would be consistent with other such casino operations in the province.
I am sure it would be advantageous to have sole exposure of that corner for the casino’s purposes.
I would have guessed that corner belongs to the province. But Mr. Majors is one connected guy.
All I can say is yay to making a new welcome to PG sign! Make it big and bright!
Has city council lost their nuts. This intersection connects countries. Thousands of ppl pass through here every year. To move it, well just take Prince George off the map. I say make a really nice one , perhaps like Grande Cache Alta, a really nice place to stop. Pull your head out of the sand with 2015 around the corner.
i say get rid of the eye sore rollerdome across the road and do something there. at least it would be on the right side for tourists coming from the south to alaska
northernjoe: “I haven’t lived in PG for 3 years now and I have to say I was seriously insulted to have to pay a 2 % tax to stay at the coast inn of the north…”
You must not travel much. 2% is positively cheap compared to pretty much everywhere else. They all have a tourism levy or a destination tax or whatever you want to call it. And it’s more than 2%.
Both ugly relics from the 40’s and 60’s have outlived their appeal and usefulness!
The R-Dome is an awesome eyesore and the Stickman (what a droll piece of ‘art’) can be made into firewood.
Time to move on! What’s wrong with how Kamloops, Vernon and Kelowna present themselves to visitors?
“The current plant is to move the community mascot to the opposite corner with an updated âwelcome to P.G. â sign as well as adding directions on how to find the visitors centre on First Avenue.”
Okay, what is wrong with this picture? They move Mr. P.G. to the opposite corner. Right, so where will all the Twitter addicted picture taking RVers park? On the shoulder adjacent to a very busy intersection?
Idiotic.
The best location in Prince George for a tourism info center is at the junction of 16 & 97. Not First Avenue.
Although the access to the existing site is very challenging, depending on your direction of travel, it is at least
easily found (huh, must be why its there, what a coincidence) Typical Prince George administration thinking must be the fluoride in the water.
metalman.
“Certainly Mr P.G. is very 1960âs Mad Men look, but it is what it is, and I love himâ said Mayor Shari Green.”
Mayor Green, can you relate to life without comparing it to television?
metalman.
Did a google search on visitor centres in BC. What I found was very attractive centers. Most if not all were located coming into towns on the main hwy’s like 97,16 etc. Most have manicured lawns with pinic tables etc.
Quesnel is located in beautiful LeBourdias Park, beautiful gardens, kids park area, picnic tables, museum and a splash park.
Williams Lake, grassy picnic areas etc, 6000 sq ft 2 storey log building.
100 Mile House, nice log building, and the list goes on.
Prince George the only mention on the site is that we have 2 visitors locations. Seasonal on hwy 19/16 and the all year around on 1st ave. Nothing else is mentioned, no pictures (just as well)we have no grassy areas, no picnic tables, nowhere to stretch your legs and relax after a long drive. Nothing attractive about 1st ave, no pride, but lots of weeds etc.
May I suggest that if anyone is interested what other visitor centres around BC looks like go to google, and go to visitors centres BC and you can look at all of them. You will be very disappointed with what we have here in Prince George.
I’ve lived here for 8 years and didn’t even know there was a Visitor’s Centre on 1st Ave.
Typical PG… move the visitors station from a high visibility location to an industrial waste land. I bet its Greens way of trying to force a downtown agenda at the cost of a real tourist plan.
IMO PG should just get out of the tourism promotion business. That’s $15 million a decade that could be spent on our city roads… maybe build a visitors park at 16 & 97 with some pamphlet racks for a million of that. Media promotion for the tourism actors in the city can always partner with the provincial funded Northern BC Tourism.
Cut IPG and Tourism PG and then the road budget is where it should be at. As a tax payer of the home hostage tax I would like to see my taxes go to the roads rather than the other wants.
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