Kāpiti Coast District Council has confirmed the Kāpiti i-SITE is now closed and has announced new locations for some of the information services previously provided at the site will be operating from early April.
Following a 13 February announcement of a decision to close the premises in Paraparaumu, some of the services will now be offered from other Council sites and some from the Coastlands Customer Services counter.
KCDC Group Manager Place and Space, James Jefferson, says Council has worked through the options for a new way of offering services with staff and partner stakeholders and is pleased to be partnering with Coastlands and the Citizens Advice Bureau(CAB) to offer similar information services.
“We will have the new arrangements largely in place from Monday 8 April,” he says.
Council’s own services centres, libraries, the Coastlands Aquatic Centre, the Te Newhanga Community Centre in Paraparaumu and the Waikanae Support Hub in Mahara Place will have Kāpiti and Wellington region visitor guides and maps available, as well as accommodation and attraction information. This information will also be at the Coastlands Customer Services counter and CAB. Coastlands will also make bookings for InterCity buses, Cook Strait ferries and local event tickets. Around 75% of the i-SITE’s business has been from local customers.
“We are very grateful to all these groups for stepping up to be part of supporting district information services and we look forward to working alongside them,” says Mr Jefferson.
As well as offering on-hand information resources to support both visitors and locals, some of the support hubs will have access to self-help online accommodation and tourism booking facilities. The Council’s www.kapiticoastnz.com destination website is a key portal for making these types of bookings.
Mr Jefferson says new directional signage would also be produced to provide better ‘on the spot’ information to help visitors more easily find out about what to see and do while they’re in Kāpiti. This could include smart phone technology directing people to the www.kapiticoastnz.com site via QR codes.
“Our visitor landscape continues to change quickly and the role technology now plays is significant,” Mr Jefferson says.
“We’ll continue to focus our efforts on making the most of the opportunities new online tools offer while meeting the day-to-day needs of people wishing to have face-to-face interactions to get information about our District.”
