Makarora businesses believe they have been left in the lurch by the Department of Conservation's decision not to open its visitor centre in the village for the summer, as usual.
Doc staff made the announcement at an ''information session'' on Tuesday night.
Owner of the Makarora Tourist Centre, next door to the visitor centre, Rhondda Osmers told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the closure was unexpected.
''They had sort of indicated that it was a community consultation about what might happen.
''But in actual fact they started off and said, `Sorry, we are closing it'.
''That was the shock.''
Mrs Osmers' concern was about who would be left to deal with the 16,000 people who used the Doc visitor centre, between November and April, for information on weather, river levels and the state of Doc tracks in the Mt Aspiring National Park.
Makarora is the starting point for the popular Wilkin and Young tracks.
Mrs Osmers said her business provided tourists with coffee, food, petrol, accommodation and souvenirs, but her staff referred all inquiries about the national park to Doc's visitor centre.
She could not employ extra staff to answer park-related questions, she said, and expected trampers would be ''very cross and angry'' at having no-one to talk to about track conditions.
''Some of them even arrive and they don't know which valley's the Wilkin and which one's the Young.
''I just don't know how we are going to handle it.''
Tourist centre manager Michelle St John said providing tramping information to tourists could be very time-consuming and she and other staff did not feel qualified.
Senior ranger partnerships Ruth Harrison said yesterday there was no expectation the tourist centre or other businesses would be required to provide Doc information.
Ms Harrison said most trampers arrived in Makarora prepared for a four-day trip.
''So they are not things that you take off on without planning.''
Doc's website would be revised to remind trampers to check into Doc offices in Haast or Wanaka before travelling to Makarora.
She said Doc could install a public phone at the visitor centre so trampers could access information, and signage could be upgraded.
Ms Harrison said the visitor centre lacked such things as public toilets, and to bring it up to standard would require ''a reasonable amount of investment''.
In a press release yesterday, Wanaka conservation partnerships manager Phil Tisch said visitor numbers had declined up to 60% over the past 15 years and it was not viable to keep the centre open.
Only 3% of the 215,000 vehicles a year passing through Makarora used it, he said.
He pointed out the Doc services offered at Makarora were available 65km away in Wanaka and 80km away at Haast.
Two Doc staff based at Makarora would continue to service huts, tracks and four campgrounds in the region.
