The Chamber of Jefferson County and city of Port Townsend have opted to downsize the footprint of the Visitor Information Center in favor of more digital options.

“Our visitor population had been migrating to a more experiential tourism demographic for the past few years and many are digital natives,” said Arlene Alen, executive director of the Chamber of Jefferson County. 

“Additionally, the pandemic has changed the needs of the tourism industry forever and as such the city and chamber were able to reassess how they serve our visitors and as their DMO (Destination Marketing Organization) how the chamber markets Port Townsend as well as the Peninsula,” she added. “This is the same reimagining and reengineering many businesses and organizations currently are facilitating to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 environment.”

Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro said of the visitor center reduction, “COVID has hit our local tourism and hospitality industry very hard, including significant reductions in lodging tax revenue this year and the expectation that it’ll likely take at least a few years to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Among other things, reduction in revenue has meant a concurrent reduction in resources for the chamber, resulting in a diminished Visitor Information Center footprint and changes to services and activities. We’re grateful that the chamber has gracefully re-imagined how they can provide important services and value during the pandemic — and what we’ll need to prioritize to move beyond it and into the future.”