Empty tourist bureaus that once welcomed visitors to N.B. eyed for development
Many visitor information centres were closed between 2018 and 2020, but buildings still standing
Driving into New Brunswick from the United States, you could blink and miss it.
Just past the border post and signs welcoming you to the province, tucked away on a hillside, sits a wood-panelled building resembling a shoebox. A driveway up from the highway is blocked by a gate and deep snow.
The empty building is one of the province's many tourist information bureaus that were closed between 2018 and 2020 because of budget concerns and declining numbers of tourists stopping in to speak with staff and pick up brochures, maps and travel advice.
While municipalities and regional tourism operators still run tourist bureaus in New Brunswick, they are often located in town centres well off the highway.
Now this centre outside of Woodstock, just five kilometres from the Maine border on Highway 95, is up for sale.
It was originally sold as provincial surplus for $323,000 in 2022.
The new owners, a company called Ambika Group Inc., with a mailing address in Calgary, did not develop the 35-acre property in Richmond Corner, now up for sale again for $599,900. That's below its 2024 assessed property value of $742,200.
Realtor Kanwalpreet Singh said the owners ended up moving out of New Brunswick and did not go forward with plans to develop it as a truck stop.
He said there's already been some interest in the property to develop a motel or use the land for agriculture, noting that is has business potential because of its proximity to the highway and U.S. border. But no one has inked a deal yet.
In Saint John, another tourist bureau on the city's west side on Highway 1 sits empty.
Perched on a bluff overlooking the vast, sweeping marshes of Saints Rest Beach, on a clear day you can see cargo ships on the horizon of the Bay of Fundy as they head toward the port.
The striking-looking building is the first opportunity for tourists driving up from the U.S. border to get a real view from the highway of what New Brunswick has to offer.
But the tourist bureau itself, with its large A-frame structure and a single circular window on the exterior, almost commands more attention than the view.
Even with the building's quirks and prime location, the city closed it down in 2022 in favour of operating a tourist information booth at the City Market. The property was declared surplus last summer and by August the city put out a request for expressions of interest to develop it.
But it's unclear what happened with that after a deadline to receive proposals passed.
When asked for details on the building's current status and future, city spokesperson Erin White said the city would not comment, stating in an email that it is an "active file."
Coun. Greg Norton, whose ward includes the property, said he's excited to see the property "reach its full potential."
"City staff are "actively working with a proponent," Norton said in an email, but offered no further explanation.
"While I look forward to sharing more details in the future, there is no additional information available at this time," he said.
Closed bureaus can send wrong message, says prof
While planning vacations online is the common method today, it's hard not to overstate the importance these bureaus once held in the province's tourism strategy.
"But that's not to say there isn't still value in visitor information centres," said Lorn Sheehan, a Dalhousie University professor who studies tourism and travel management.
All of New Brunswick's neighbouring provinces still operate information bureaus and many tourists would still find a benefit from stopping in, Sheehan said.
Tourism budgets are often tight, he said, so agencies have a hard choice to decide if they can afford staffing these centres.
But as the province is now without these easy to access visitor information centres on major highways, Sheehan said it can send a message to visitors about how much New Brunswick values tourism.
"If you don't have them, I think you might be looked upon as not being as serious about tourism as other communities or provinces," he said.
"It will be something some tourists miss, and wonder why it doesn't exist because they will see it in other destinations."
When asked if it would be a smart move for more local tourism groups in New Brunswick to jump on these properties, Sheehan said it again comes down to budget and to specific situations.
"If you looked at the piece of property and its location, and it happened to be at the entrance of a community … it could be something that the community is interested in taking over," he said.
Tourism agencies say no interest in properties
But as the Woodstock and Saint John bureaus are coming up for development, local tourism agencies say their priorities lie elsewhere.
Andrew Beckett, CEO of Envision Saint John, the region's development agency that oversees tourism promotion, said the agency did not submit an expression of interest for the property.
"Industry best practice highlights that visitor information should be in the core of the community. Our focus is on our Welcome Centre in uptown Saint John," Beckett said in an email.
Tourism in the Woodstock region is handled by the Western New Brunswick Service Commission.
CEO Katelyn McGrath said in an email that the commission has not had any discussions about buying the bureau because there are several visitor information centres around the municipality.
"The Regional Tourism Promotion priorities of the Western NB Service Commission do not include the ownership or management of Visitor Information Centres at this time," McGrath said.
In New Brunswick's other far corners, two other shuttered tourist bureaus — in Aulac, on the Nova Scotia border, and St-Jacques, on the Quebec border — are still owned by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
"If there is no interest from any other departments in acquiring these properties and no interest from the local municipality in purchasing them, DTI generally tries to sell these properties at public tender," Jacob MacDonald, a DTI spokesperson, said in an email.
Documents show that the Aulac property was developed as a joint tourism venture between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island from the 1970s until 1988.
MacDonald said there are no plans to dispose of the Aulac property, but did not comment on DTI's intentions for St-Jacques.
Edmundston bureau likely too costly for local agency to take over
Joanne Bérubé-Gagné, the executive director of Edmundston-Madawaska Tourism, said there are still some tourists who wander off the highway trying to access the St-Jacques centre.
She said the province considered putting the site up as surplus last year but it didn't happen.
But if the property were made available, would Edmundston-Madawaska Tourism be interested?
"There's a lot of consideration that would have to be put into a good business plan to see if it's viable or not," Bérubé-Gagné said.
Adding that the property is accessible to both the Trans-Canada highway and a snowmobile trail, Bérubé-Gagné said her organization would want it open 12 months a year, which would only increase costs.
"If you consider the costs of having it open, it might not be worth it after three years being closed."
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