Carolyn Lewis told the Otago Daily Times she hoped the four years of insights gathered by herself and her team at 12 Harbour St would not be lost.
The information centre, which includes heritage hub Whitestone City, in the historic precinct, closed recently after the council stopped its funding.
A final 10 months of financial support was announced in last year’s long-term plan.
Ms Lewis, who had 147 letters of support, requested $150,000 of annual plan funding to keep the centre open.
But councillors voted against this at an extraordinary council meeting this week, with only Mayor Mel Tavendale voting for.
Mrs Tavendale said Ms Lewis had “fought tirelessly” for the centre and “cares really deeply about this place”.
The mayor struggled to “put a line through” the request following the feedback received from the community.
Cr Jim Hopkins said what struck him about the submission was that it was a “really good business” if it moved away from a donations model.
Part of the reason given for turning down the funding request was that it would come out of rates.
The council has previously said it would offer similar services at a lower cost to the ratepayer.
Ms Lewis said she hoped the council would include her and her team in discussions “to get a good understanding of the information and experiences that visitors coming through the doors every year need and expect’’ and the “real costs of providing this service”.
‘‘We’ve got four years of insights, and we don’t want to lose that knowledge and momentum.”
On Tuesday, councillors acknowledged the work Ms Lewis and her team dedicated to the centre and a motion from deputy mayor Rebecca Ryan was unanimously approved, reaffirming councillors’ “support for working with Tourism Waitaki and other relevant parties to investigate offering visitor information services from existing council locations across the district”.
Several councillors expressed their hope that Ms Lewis could be involved in that work.
Ms Lewis said at least councillors recognised the need for a physical, in-person visitor information service.
“It bears repeating that you can’t just send 36,000 visitors into an existing council facility and expect staff there to cope with their inquiries and requests on top of their existing core workloads.”
There was no specific requirement for councils to support tourism, chief executive Alex Parmley said on Tuesday but it was listed as one of the council’s core activities.
