By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
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SALISBURY — If all goes as planned, the Interstate 95 visitors information center could be up and running before the Fourth of July weekend, when tens of thousands of tourists pour into the area to enjoy its recreation and vacation opportunities.
"We're making plans to open on July 1," North of Boston Convention and Visitor Bureau director Julie McConchie said yesterday. "We're doing some needed repairs right now. The walls are being repainted and brochure racks shored up. The landscaping has already been handled. Some plants were stolen; those have been replaced."
McConchie said help with the renovations came in part from Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins, who sent work crews from the house of correction to the state-built and owned facility. The work will rehab the wear and tear done over the site's 10-year lifespan, she said.
McConchie is hiring people to staff the center seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., until the end of the year. First on her list is contacting former staff members who were laid off and who are already trained, hoping some will return.
McConchie is also heading up revenue generation activities and programs to raise the approximately $87,000 needed for payroll and other costs to handle the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to drop in for information.
In the works are interior and exterior displays, and an inside brochure rack advertising opportunities for tourism-related businesses, she said. Both tourism board members and nonmembers will be allowed to advertise on the displays, but members' costs are discounted. McConchie is also working to provide visitors refreshments at the center and also raise some funds to cover expenses.
The Maria Miles Visitor Information Center on the southbound side of I-95 laid off all its staff and locked its doors in October, when the state cut funding for visitor centers statewide because of shrinking revenues. The move generated criticism from Newburyport area businesses and institutions that depend on tourism. Instead of a helpful staff, indoor bathrooms and dozens of tourism brochures, visitors are met with portable toilets, a handful of outdoor vending machines and a shuttered building.
But North Shore tourism professionals and state legislators pleaded with the Department of Transportation to enter into a private/public partnership with the North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau and reopen the center, which has serviced as many as half a million people a year in the past.
In mid-May, State Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullans gave the OK, finding the money to share the costs from savings his department realized through its November 2009 reorganization and cost-saving techniques, he said. The plan is for the state to pay for utilities and the tourism bureau to pay for staffing and management.
"There are amazing statistics about the number of direct inquiries we get from the visitor center," Salisbury Chamber of Commerce Chairman Chuck Takesian said. "We hear about it all the time, about the number of people referred from the Maria Miles Visitor Center to Salisbury Beach. And it's important in the whole scheme of things of welcoming people into Massachusetts."
Welcoming people at visitor centers is a well-known and important part of the tourism industry nationwide, said Ray Champagne, owner of Beach Rose RV Park in Salisbury. All one has to do to have that driven home is to look right across I-95 from the Miles Center to see New Hampshire's visitor center in the northbound lane, always a busy place, open 24 hours a day, he added.
According to the center's namesake, Salisbury Chamber of Commerce President Maria Miles, tourism brings in $13.5 billion to Massachusetts from the domestic market alone. Seventy percent of that total comes from the drive market, which needs visitors centers, Miles said.
Champagne echoed her comment.
"The tourist needs a place to be able to stop and pick up information," said Champagne, who is also president of the Salisbury Beach Betterment Association. "People are looking for information on where to go to spend their money, and I absolutely think the Maria Miles Center does that. It's a big plus and extremely important for the whole region, especially for those coming into Massachusetts from up north. It's the first thing they hit when they enter the state."
