Centre in good hands

By Kath Gannaway
WITH 95 per cent of the Yarra Valley’s accommodation providers on its books, staff and volunteers at the Yarra Valley Visitor Information Centre in Healesville have their jobs cut out for them just taking bookings.
Factor in their role as information providers on all aspects of tourism to the thousands of people who walk through the door of the information centre, the historic old Healesville courthouse, and, you have a very busy workplace.
The centre is operated by the Yarra Valley Regional Tourism Association and run by a dedicated team of paid employees and volunteers.
Jeanette Suhr is the co-ordinator of volunteers and her focus right now is on increasing her volunteer pool.
“It’s never been busier,” she said. “February was down, naturally, but before that visitation to the Yarra Valley didn’t seem to be affected at all by the economic downturn and things are returning to normal. It’s as busy as I have ever known it.”
With the centre moving more and more to computerisation of the various facets of its operation, including their extensive accommodation booking service, there is a real need for volunteers to meet, greet and inform visitors.
While skills such as computer and tourism experience are welcomed, the centre provides training and ongoing professional development for volunteers.
“It helps if people know about the area, but they can learn as they go and if they have an interest in learning more about the Yarra Valley it’s a very good way to do it,” Ms Suhr said. “You get to meet people from all over the world and it can be a very rewarding and interesting experience.
“Ideally we would love people to do four hours a week, but if someone can offer us that amount of time each fortnight, we would love to hear from them.”
As part of their training volunteers go on monthly familiarisation tours of accommodation places, wineries and other attractions.
There are also plans to introduce bi-monthly get-togethers for volunteers to promote a more social network.
“We give really personalised, professional service and it gets really busy here at times, especially during the weekends, but it is also good fun,” Ms Suhr said.