Minehead, which is seen as the centre of the district's vitally important tourism industry, will effectively be left without any official tourist information facilities as a result of the cost-cutting closure.
Leading Minehead hotelier and former district councillor Bryan Leaker described the situation as "appalling".
And he accused centre owners West Somerset Council of being "unable to run a bath".
He told the Free Press: "I would like to congratulate the district council on behaving in a manner that is likely to bring the tourism industry - the number one industry in West Somerset - to its knees.
"They have been totally reactive and have looked at the costs of running the centre, not what it actually brings into the town and wider district.
"I appreciate the council has financial difficulties but if they can't manage their finances they should get central Government to do it for them.
"This decision could result in Minehead becoming a tourism ghost town and see the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs."
It is just three years since the purpose-built centre was opened in a blaze of publicity by TV personality Johnny Kingdom and hailed as the hi-tech future for the entire district's tourism industry.
But this week, the district council blamed central Government budget cuts for what is currently being described as a temporary closure.
Earlier this year the authority warned the centre could be closed within two years due to funding problems and appealed for volunteers to help run it.
The two remaining permanent staff took voluntary redundancy in the spring and the October closure date has been widely discussed within council circles since then, but has only been made public this week.
The council has been investigating a number of options after deciding it could not afford the £40,000 a year running costs, including shutting the centre and moving services to the authority's customer contact office in Summerland Road to save money.
Bids from three groups willing to run the centre on behalf of the council have also been considered - although one of the front-runners, Minehead Chamber of Trade, withdrew its bid this week.
Chamber chairman Graham Sizer said the organisation had worked hard on a rescue plan but said the uphill struggle to get the bid accepted was simply too steep.
He said: "To the chamber the investigative work was financially expensive and the man hours put in exhaustive.
"We explored every avenue to bring Minehead's tourist information centre into the 21st century and make it sustainable.
"We got close. Maybe we were constrained by the geographical position of the existing building. Maybe we were also constrained by the box ticking hoops we had to jump through to secure initial council subsidy.
"And maybe it was, at the end of the day, a bit of politics that made it all just too much."
He said the chamber had given it its "best shot" and thanked Butlins, the West Somerset Railway and Minehead Town Council for their financial support and the district council for the opportunity to submit a plan for the centre.
However, the location, opening times, parking arrangements and working conditions at the centre have long been a cause for concern.
Staff said they felt isolated from their employers at the district council and were worried enquiries had dropped since the centre relocated from Friday Street to the seafront.
At the time planning permission was given, council officers rebutted concerns from highways chiefs about poor parking in the area and said it would be up to customers to find their own parking spaces.
There was also much internal wrangling between Minehead Town Council and the district authority over who would staff the centre and, ultimately, pay for it.
The centre was eventually built on land acquired by the district council from developer Westbury Homes as a result of a condition tied to a planning permission for flats alongside the site.
The authority secured £203,193 of European Regional Development Funding towards the cost of the hi-tech facility.
The council faces the risk of having to pay some of the money back if the centre is closed permanently, while Butlins has several covenants on the land, which restricts the future use of the building.
In the interim, all telephone and email inquiries will be automatically diverted to Porlock Visitor Centre, which is open two and a half hours on weekdays and four hours on Saturdays.
Cllr David Sanders, the district council's lead member for economic regeneration, said:
"With the drastic cuts to our funding we, like many other councils, simply cannot afford to maintain the past levels of service delivery, even though we may strongly support the service in principle.
"This is especially true when it comes to services that are not statutory and that we have no duty to provide.
"The visitor information centre review group, which is made up of West Somerset councillors and local organisations, will meet again now that the initial proposals have been withdrawn to look at other options for service delivery in Minehead.
"We would like to thank Porlock Visitor Centre for taking on Minehead's workload in the meantime so that visitors contacting the centre will have their enquiries answered."
Centre staff had a wide variety of duties, including booking bus and boat trip tickets, promoting attractions, tours and local events and providing information on everything from train times to bus timetables, walking routes, local caravan parks and fishing trips.
In addition, they were also expected to push tourism guides such as Exmoor Visitor, Exmoor Accommodation 2011 and the Minehead Hotels Guide, as well selling maps, gifts and local DVDs and books.
Sales of coach tickets for National Express, Berry's Coaches and Firstbus will be transferred to the district council's customer service centre in Summerland Road in Minehead.
The customer centre and Minehead Town Council will also stock a selection of tourism leaflets during the temporary closure.
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