Following the closure of the Visitor Information Center at the Jefferson Transit park and ride in March — and with tourism season ramping up — city staff report they have …
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Following the closure of the Visitor Information Center at the Jefferson Transit park and ride in March — and with tourism season ramping up — city staff report they have finalized details on how to deliver information to visitors.
Fort Worden Hospitality (FWH) at the Nora Porter Commons at Fort Worden State Park will be the hub for visitor information, according to a city press release. Reservations staff at the front desk will be available, in person and over the phone, seven days a week to assist direct visitors to accommodations, event information, and other resources. Maps and brochures also will be available, as well as public restrooms.
According to the same press release, the Port Townsend Mainstreet Program and Key City Public Theatre will also play roles in providing visitor services.
The Port Townsend Main Street Program, for its part, will deploy a “mobile greeter program,” which involves positioning an electric bike cart and staffer who can answer questions at key downtown locations. The staffer and cart will be used on weekends through September.
Key City Public Theatre will manage an event reader-board on Highway 20 as travelers head into and out of town. Organizations will be able to reserve space on the reader-board beginning mid-June.
The Port Townsend Visitor Information Center at 2409 Jefferson Street ceased to be staffed or managed by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce as of March 4. The closure came after months of fruitless negotiations between the city and the chamber dating back to December 2023. According to a press release from the city dated March 12, the chamber decided that “the Chamber’s primary focus is to promote and support business within the county,” and that the operation of the Visitor Center’s brick-and-mortar facility is “no longer a sustainable element of the Chamber’s business model.”
“After thorough and careful deliberation, we found we no longer have the capacity to manage both the Chamber and the Visitor Center, as it was not financially sustainable to do both,” Chamber Director Dana Petrik stated in the press release. “We will continue to support all city and county government, and to be a prominent vehicle for information.”
Tourism-related business owners can attend an open house from 1-3 p.m. on June 12 at the Commons.
