By Derek Cornet

Visitor centre nets $25,000 worth of sales last month

Jan 22, 2019 | 5:00 PM

It was a busy holiday season at the Lac La Ronge Visitor Centre with more than $25,000 being spent on local art and products.

“An average month here would be $2,000 to $3,000 worth of art sold,” Manager Judy Hanke said. “In December alone, in about 15 days we sold over $25,000 worth of local artwork. When you think about it, that money is all going back into the community.”

Four years ago, Hanke stated only one artist was selling artwork at the centre but now there are 86. Some of the top selling items include canned goods by Debbie Prodahl, stained glass by Suzanne Guest, pebble art by Tammy Graas, pottery by Bob Polischuk, photography by Corey Hardcastle and charcuterie boards by Gregg Lobb. Customers also purchase a considerable amount of wildrice and Hanke recently started selling teas and dry mushrooms from Boreal Heartland Forest Products.

Considering many of the locals selling items at the centre also have full-time jobs, Hanke noted some of them are able to make quite a bit of income on the side. With support from the tri-communities, she said none of it would be possible.

“I never expected to see those numbers in December,” Hanke said. “I expect sales will continue and hopefully I can get some more artists. We have a real variety of artwork here.”

long-term care

La Ronge housing shortage discussed at SUMA convention

Apr 18, 2024

Trades in Sask.

Skilled trades need not limited to building homes

Apr 17, 2024

snowfall

Extreme weather leads to cancelled flights at La Ronge Airport

Apr 17, 2024

While sales at the centre were strong throughout 2018, the number of visitors entering the centre dropped dramatically. Numbers in June, July and August were down with 778 visitors stopping by in June 2017 and 428 in June 2018. Hanke believes the decrease doesn’t necessarily indicate a drop in tourism as not everyone stops at the centre or sign the guest book. She also said more people are purchasing fishing licenses online and not going into the centre to do so.

“That is quite a drop,” Hanke said. “I thought it seemed great.”
 

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno