After reading the article on Wednesday Oct. 3 about the visitors to the Peninsula down, I would like to suggest perhaps the stats are down because the visitor center on the highway, a gateway to Sidney, Victoria and the Island, has not been opened as in previous years.
This year it opened at 8:30 a.m. as in previous years - not many tourists travel on the 7 a.m. ferry and closed at 4:30 p.m. Therefore even people taking the 3 p.m. ferry from Vancouver would not arrive in time to get help from the visitor center; nor would they arrive in time to be counted. In previous years, the visitor center was open until 7 p.m. It also opened before Easter and stayed open until some time in October.
This year it opened after Easter and sadly, closed at the end of September before the Thanksgiving weekend.
In my view, more visitors would be helped and reliable statistical trends easier to determine if the visitor center on the highway could be returned to the previous opening hours.
Margarete Rothlisberger
Sidney