[quote style=”2″]Umatilla Home to 1 of 9 Welcome Centers in State[/quote]
Perched over the Columbia River, the Umatilla Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center is easily recognizable from Interstate 82 by the large letters that spell out “Welcome Center” on the roof.
The Umatilla location is one of nine Travel Oregon Welcome Centers and one of only two in Eastern Oregon, the other being in Ontario. The Welcome Center provides information and interaction about Oregon for locals and travelers, from as close as the Tri-Cities or as far away as Australia. In the past year, Umatilla has seen guests from Singapore, Brazil and South Africa.
“We had some people from England in today, and we had 31 people on Tuesday,” Chamber Director Karen Hutchinson-Talaski said Wednesday. “At the end of April we were 40 percent above last year’s totals for visitors, and we’ve had a lot of return visitors, so that’s great.”
This week officially kicks off Oregon’s tourist season, and the Welcome Center has switched to its summer hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week.
The center will remain on those hours through September. On Oct. 1, the location will return to its winter hours, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
With the holiday weekend approaching, Hutchinson-Talaski said the office expects to be busy providing information about camping, the coast and Oregon destinations.
“We’re giving out state park guides, the mile-by-mile guide to the Oregon Coast,” Hutchinson-Talaski said. “We have all the new fishing regulations, information about any of the state parks. People are really interested in biking, so we have guides for Oregon biking routes, too.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UMATILLA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND VISITOR’S CENTER
Children can pick up coloring pages and crayons, as well as materials from the kids’ corner.
The Welcome Center is also pet friendly – dogs and cats are welcome, as long as the animals are on a leash – and offers free wifi.
The materials and information are available to travelers as well as locals looking for more information or volunteer opportunities.
“We’ll give free advice to anyone,” Hutchinson-Talaski said with a laugh. “But we’re always looking for more volunteers, especially on the weekends. In the summertime, we can have over 100 people in one day, so we could always use another volunteer or two.”
For more information about the Umatilla Chamber of Commerce and Welcome Center:
• Stop by 100 Cline Ave., off Brownell Boulevard in Umatilla
• Visit the chamber website
• Call 541-922-4825
• or email karen@umatillachamber.net
