Wollongong's visitor centre and a souvenir shop which has operated from the centre for two decades have until the end of October to vacate the shop front adjoining Wollongong Town Hall.Winners Souvenir Shop owner Mick Winner was told on Friday that he had less than four months to vacate the premises after Wollongong City Council decided not to renew Tourism Wollongong's lease. Mr Winner, who sub-leases his shop from Tourism Wollongong, said he had been previously told the Wollongong tourist information centre would remain open, even after the new Southern Gateway Centre at Bulli Tops was completed.
Southern Gateway, the tourist centre nobody can get to Council to dim lights on Southern Gateway centre Southern Gateway's blazing lights condemned After 26 years in business in Wollongong, including 20 years at the town hall, Mr Winner said he would be forced to close his business. High rents in the city centre meant relocating the shop was not viable.Tourism Wollongong general manager Greg Binskin said the Wollongong Town Hall redevelopment meant plans to leave the building had been brought forward."It was always going to be a transition when the new visitor centre opened because there would have been a duplication of services," Mr Binskin said.He said Tourism Wollongong was working closely with the council to find an office for its six "destination marketers". He said the organisation had been evaluating the need for a Wollongong shop front, with 70 per cent of visitors now researching their destination online.The council's director of infrastructure and works Peter Kofod said they had hoped to stage the refurbishment of Wollongong Town Hall so the area leased to Tourism Wollongong could be included in a later stage."Detailed design and construction planning has meant that we will need to access the original town hall, currently leased to Tourism Wollongong, earlier than expected," Mr Kofod said.But Mr Winner believed Wollongong still needed an information centre in the city, with the Southern Gateway Centre being flagged as a regional tourism hub to promote the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands."I think it is pretty sad and a backward step that Wollongong won't have its own tourist bureau when towns one twentieth of the size have their own centre," he said.He said the Wollongong information centre and shop was popular with visitors who arrived by train, university students and holiday-makers without a car."People come in here late in the afternoon when they can't find accommodation or early in the morning after a night in Wollongong."
