By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Chinook Country Tourist Association to dissolve

Feb 28, 2019 | 10:30 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Chinook Country Tourist Association has announced it will be dissolving due to depleted financial resources and no positive outcomes moving forward.

The decision to dissolve the organization was originally made on Feb. 19 at the Board Meeting of the Association.

Since the loss of funding from the City of Lethbridge for providing Visitor Services at the Visitor Information Centre last April, the organization looked for other sources of revenue with limited success.

CCTA Executive Director Nikolaus Wyslouzil says it’s the end of an era for this once thriving organization.

“Without the base funding provided by the City, we have scaled back on various aspects of the operations such as producing travel publications and maps of the city and region, stakeholder services, and now our marketing efforts aimed at promoting the area to visitors have been suspended.

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“We have promoted Lethbridge and the region for decades to potential visitors and residents and want to thank all the operators for their support in allowing us to fulfill our mandate and were honoured to represent this region.”

The CCTA has been in the community for fifty years and operated one of the few year-round Visitor Centres in Southern Alberta throughout its time.

The organization started hosting visitor services for travellers and residents in 1969 as the Visitor and Convention Association of Southern Alberta. This evolved to the Visitor Centre in 1979 at the corner of Mayor Magrath and Scenic Drive South, which is the confluence of Highway 4 and 5.

It further expanded in 1985 by adding parking for larger vehicles and trailers, a playground, picnic shelter, washrooms and interpretative signage area promoting both city and regional attractions.

As the organization continued to grow, it later developed office space in 1995 with some retail souvenirs and giftware to support the demands of visitor services.

“There are still some souvenirs and giftware in the retail area, plus lots of information on area attractions, which we would like to move out before the closing date so please drop by,” Wyslouzil added.

CCTA will continue to operate the Visitor Centre until the end of March. It will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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