His petition called for the reopening of the i-Site, noting how the council had agreed in May to pay Tourism BOP $285,000 to provide visitor information services, followed by the Mount i-Site closing in June and the opening of the i-Port in October; the i-Port was not available to the public.
Rhys Arrowsmith, the general manager of Tourism Bay of Plenty, responded that the former Mount i-Site had been losing money, losing its relevance to visitors and was effectively becoming an expensive bus shelter.
The opening of the i-Port was in response to the big growth in the cruise ship industry and the need to put resources where that growth was.
He explained that the i-Port was open for the initial influx of people off the ships.
It usually took about three hours for the ships to empty out, and the i-Port was there for that intensive time. For instance, it could be open, depending on the tides, from 6am to 11am.
Mr Arrowsmith said they would like to reopen an i-Site at the Mount, but not until an affordable and logical location had been found.
"There is no appetite for Tourism Bay of Plenty to reopen the i-Site in the old building."
Asked whether the i-Site could form part of a future Mount mainstreet office in the shopping centre, he said they were prepared to partner with any aligned organisation to achieve an i-Site.