Avebury Tourist Information Centre: closure imminent?

Spare a thought for Avebury Tourist Information Centre which will soon close (perhaps at the end of this month we heard) unless some sort of community project is set up.

You could be forgiven for thinking the relationship between government and tourism in the Stonehenge-Avebury World Heritage Site is a bit of a muddle. At Stonehenge, as everyone knows, a multi-million pound new Visitors’ Centre is about to be built. At Avebury (which the cognoscenti may well tell you is a far more interesting destination!) services for tourists will be reduced to no more than an internet presence and maybe, (if funding can be found) a phone app.

It’s all a bit sad. English Heritage can’t fill the gap as their outreach department is being closed and the parish council doesn’t see it as any of its business – a non-profit project to keep it going is mooted but “Parish Council members would not take an active role because the aim of the Council was to represent the interest of local people, primarily, and not tourists.”

So who does that leave? Perhaps the National Trust could print maps of Avebury together with interesting crop circle factoids and dowsing instructions on the napkins they hand out at their new fast food joint?!

Stonehenge’s New Visitors’ Centre…

and Avebury’s new Visitor Centre…?