Saugatuck-Douglas Convention & Visitors Bureau opens Welcome Center

Exterior of Future CVB Welcome Center, 

"Fitz & Thelma Coghlin Center"

The Saugatuck-Douglas Convention & Visitors Bureau has purchased the former You'nique Art Gallery building located at 95 Blue Star Highway in Douglas, Mich., for its new headquarters and the area's first visitors welcome center. The acquisition of the building was made possible through a generous one time gift of $150,000 from long time resident Thelma Coghlin. The new welcome center area will be named "The Fitz & Thelma Coghlin Center" in honor of the benefactors who made the purchase possible.

According to Felicia Fairchild, Executive Director of the Saugatuck-Douglas Visitors Bureau, "We have been watching this building for the past 10 years because of its prime location, high visibility and easy access for visitors looking for area information, assistance and lodging availability; but until now we simply couldn't afford the purchase price." She added, "Our current location has been very satisfactory for conducting the day-to-day behind the scenes marketing of the area; but increasingly we have realized that in our current location we are not visible enough and need to be more accessible to customers."

The new location and the exquisite layout of the interior as a former art gallery will more appropriately reinforce the area's image as the "Art Coast™ Of Michigan". The interior layout could provide a multitude of opportunities for local businesses to display their promotional materials and exhibit or engage in onsite demonstrations or events that promote local tourism offerings. In addition to increased public visibility, and easy access to the new Visitors Bureau location, plans to expand operating hours to weekends and evenings during the season are part of the bureau's customer service strategy.

Paul Cook, Chairman of the CVB Board of Directors stated, "Tourism is the economic engine that drives the entire economy of the Saugatuck-Douglas area." He continued, "Since the Visitors Bureau is the organization that markets and promotes tourism, we are very fortunate that we are being given this opportunity to expand our highly successful marketing and promotional outreach efforts to include helping customers once they have arrived here as well.... this is the next logical step in our evolution as a tourism bureau."

The CVB Board of Directors is now planning to hold a meeting with its members to discuss details of the acquisition and schedule an open house in the new building to introduce the facility to the community. The bureau is anxious to solicit everyone's creative ideas for utilizing the new location to maximum advantage in an effort to capture more business for the area.