Agencies Entice Summer Tourists Ground Broken For North Idaho Gateway Center

Plenty of people roll through North Idaho in their cars each summer.

The problem, tourism experts say, is stopping them.

Local tourism agencies are casting hooks into the water to snag summer tourists, and one agency broke ground Monday for the latest lure.

Directors of the Kootenai County Convention & Visitors Bureau turned a few shovels of sod where a new visitor center will stand. The 16-foot-by-40-foot North Idaho Gateway Center will provide brochures and information on a variety of attractions in Kootenai County, said Nancy DiGiammarco, executive director of the bureau, formerly known as Post Falls Tourism Inc.

The center, located next to the Factory Outlets Mall, will feature a cement patio with picnic tables. Visitors will be able to make lodging accommodations from a phone link from the center, DiGiammarco said.

New signs on Interstate 90 and on merchants’ advertising along the freeway will tout the center, set to open in mid-June.

Other visitor centers are falling into place in Coeur d’Alene. Since the demise of the Coeur d’Alene Convention and Visitors Bureau last December, the Lake City had been without a visitor center.

That changed in March when Robert Singletary - formerly of the Coeur d’Alene bureau - opened up a center in the Coeur d’Alene Plaza shopping center. The visitor center sits in a real estate office at Second Street and Sherman Avenue.

Chambers of commerce and attractions from around North Idaho pay to have display space at the center, and the early response has been encouraging, said Singletary, who runs the North Idaho Travel and Education Services.

Realtors with experience in travel planning staff the center during business hours, providing tourism and relocation for passers-by.

“We’re getting a lot of walk-in traffic from being so close to the (Coeur d’Alene) resort,” he said.

“It’s working out well for us.”

The remnants of the Coeur d’Alene CVB merged into the Coeur d’Alene Area Chamber of Commerce, which kicked off its new tourism program with the name Visitors Plus.

Tourism Director Stacy Becker said the chamber continues to negotiate for space at the Coeur d’Alene Cultural Center on Mullan Avenue near City Park.

“It’s really a great location,” she said.

She hopes to have a visitor center up and working as soon as possible, but some details need to be worked out before the cultural center site could open.

Tourism studies about traffic flowing through Kootenai County on Interstate 90 suggests that a majority of those travelers are not planning to stay in Idaho.

The challenge for tourism marketers here is to find ways to get some of them to spend money by staying and eating here, DiGiammarco said.

, DataTimes