They attended a community meeting hosted by the Berri Barmera Council in its chambers last night.

The council put forward a proposal in June that the operations of its ratepayer-funded visitor information centre relocate to the Berri Resort Hotel.

It estimated that the move would save the council about $85,000 annually.

Concerns raised at the meeting centred on the potential for a conflict of interest and the suitability of a hotel environment for travellers, including those with young children.

Hotel unsuitable

"In my opinion it would be like asking Dracula to look after the blood bank," Berri resident Danny Kearney said.

He said he was a member of the hotel but could not support the venue operating the visitor information services.

"The VIC is showcasing the region and has no place in hotel foyer, manned by hotel staff, surrounded by smoking and drinking," Mr Kearney said.

Resident Sue Crossing told the meeting she had travelled extensively and that the district should be proud of its visitor centre.

"Over the past 10 years I've done a lot of travelling and I would say that Berri has one of the Berri tourism information centres that I've been in," she said.

"To move it from there would be to our detriment."

Tourist petition

Mario Centofanti operates a lavender farm and cafe at Winkie.

He presented council with a petition signed by 60 tourists stating that they would not use a visitor information service if it was located inside a hotel.

Mr Centofanti said the majority of tourists who visited his venue did so after being referred by staff at the Berri VIC.

Joy Perkins is a teacher at Glossop High School and criticised the council's consultative process.

"The problem is you've got people's backs up, rather than getting feedback," she said.

"You have the vast majority of businesses represented here in front of you.

"Relocating the centre would be counterproductive for these businesses."

Benefits 'immeasurable'

Eric Semmler is the owner of one of the region's boutique wineries.

He praised the work of staff at the Berri VIC and said that it was hard to put a dollar value on the benefit of attracting and keeping tourists in the region.

"The location of our VIC is unique and the value of that is immeasurable," Mr Semmler said.

"If we keep an extra hundred or two hundred people in the region for an extra night per year, we've probably raised an extra one, two hundred thousand dollars.

"Our business enjoys the excellent service from our VIC... my fear is that we stand to lose the expertise [of its staff].

"I have no issues whatsoever in some of my rate money going to support the VIC.

"I know that's probably a biased view, because we benefit from it, but if we look across the community most in the community would benefit from having vibrant tourism."

Council response

Council chief executive David Beaton said council would give heavy consideration to the views of tourist operators and residents when putting the proposal to a vote at its meeting next week.

The meeting also heard that council had previously voted to indicate it did not support the proposal.

Mr Beaton said it was clear that tourism operators were opposed to moving the Berri VIC to any other site and that the facility was viewed as a valuable investment.

Source: ABC News, 23 August 2013