Visitor Information Bays are still a key way to orient visitors and provide information about the attractions, service and facilities available in your area.

In 2017, we wrote this comprehensive article Visitor Information Bays – The key to the start of a great tourist experience with just about everything a destination needs to consider when planning and installing a visitor information bay.

We know that designing, building and maintaining a high-quality visitor information bay can be costly and that many councils want to be able to recoup some of the costs. Many decide to do this by selling advertising space on the visitor information bay. This is a great strategy as long as there are clear guidelines about what’s allowed in terms of the design of ads, the type of businesses that can advertise and the costs.

The problem we find is that in an effort to sell the advertising space, many councils treat the visitor information bay as if it is a local business directory and will sell the space to any business/organisation. They don’t consider what businesses they should be targeting.

We have seen advertising for businesses that are unlikely to be of any interest to tourists. These include funeral homes, haulage contractors, accountants, farm equipment suppliers, tyre shops, the local rotary club, etc. These ads are not only unhelpful to visitors but it is unlikely that they are good value for the advertisers who will generally be targeting locals, who generally do not stop at visitor information bays.

The primary consideration for advertising on a visitor information bay must be whether the business and content is relevant to a visitor to the area.

The message for councils is – don’t lose sight of who the visitor information is aimed at and plan the information well so it reflects well on the destination, encourages visitors to stay and explore the place and contributes to the visitor economy.

Wayfound can help with all aspects of planning, design, construction and maintenance for your visitor information bay. Contact [email protected] or on 0410 449 375.