To prove her point, Masterton district councillor, Judith Callaghan did a detective's drive by of Go Wairarapa's visitor information offices this week and then attacked the lack of signage and transparency in the telephone book.
"Once they have managed to find the place, visitors then have no idea of how to
get out of the town, there are simply no signs in any direction on Queen Street," she told the council meeting last night.
She took the councillors through an imaginary route.
"I parked outside the centre (in Queen Street) and looked around to see if it said visitor information. There was a banner waving behind me somewhere and then all I could see was an array of signs and a tiny one saying information through the doors.
I walked inside and was hit with "Tranzit". Peering further, I discovered a tiny photocopied sign, taped to the desk with the corner ripped off it, saying "information". Mrs Callaghan said it was just not good enough.
However, despite the lack of signage, people still appear to be coming to the Masterton Information Centre. Mrs Callaghan scoffed at information in Go Wairarapa's report to the council that despite the decline in visitor numbers in other centres, Masterton's door traffic had bucked the system. Numbers were up 1354 for the past six months compared with the same period last year.
Go Wairarapa's report said the extra numbers were due to the increased number of international visitors coming to region. Of those who came into the Masterton centre, the majority were international visitors and 60 per cent of these said they were in Wairarapa because of the Classic New Zealand Wine Trail.
Not finished with just criticising the signage, she also expressed disgust at the difficulty in finding visitor information in the phone book. This had chief executive, Wes ten Hove diving for a handy phone book while she explained it was listed under G for Go Wairarapa "which no visitor would know to look up" and M for Masterton Information Centre. "It should be under I for information, she said.
Mayor, Bob Francis felt Mrs Callaghan had raised some valid points and the matters would be taken up with Go Wairarapa personnel.
