The council controlled organisation annual reports show they are succeeding in attracting more people to events and council facilities in the city.

Bay Venues Limited (BVL) hosted a record number of almost two million visitors in 2016/17. BVL's 24 facilities, including community centres and halls, indoor sports facilities as well as ASB Arena and Stadium, were used for over 97,000 hours during the financial year.

ASB Baypark Stadium and ASB Arena both significantly exceeded their targets of six major events with 15 major events at ASB Baypark Stadium and 11 major events at ASB Arena.

Tauranga Art Gallery has seen the highest visitor numbers since the gallery opened 10 years ago with 86,610 visiting during the year. It was named one of the top seven art galleries in New Zealand by Culture Trip following the Paradox Inside exhibition with one of the largest collections of Banksy works on display. The exhibition is also nominated for ‘Event of the Year'.

Paradox Inside as part of Paradox: Tauranga Street Art Festival organised by Tauranga City Council in collaboration with Oi YOU! and Tauranga Art Gallery, received 49,185 visitors in three months.

The gallery's art education programmes attracted the highest number of young people to have ever taken part with 10,949 participants. Over the course of the financial year, the gallery delivered 16 exhibitions that covered a broad range of genres and subjects: Buddhist medicine mandala, wildflower garden project, street art, Miles Art Awards, historical painting, Maori ceramics etc.

Tourism Bay of Plenty has seen a 16.9 per cent growth in visitor numbers in 2016/17. International visitor numbers grew by 23.6 per cent. A further focus has been on increasing shoulder and off-peak visitor spend. In 2016/17 the monthly average shoulder and off-peak spend (July to November 2016 and March to June 2017) exceeded targets and has seen a 41 per cent increase up to $69m.

Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services Ltd achieved all targets in the statement of intent with a number of new inter-regional collaborative services established across councils. Additionally, 15 new local government organisations joined the BOPLASS collaboration portal in 2016/17, bringing it up to a membership of 40 councils. With 59 organisations in total and 516 users, the portal supports increased visibility of opportunities for councils to collaborate.

'The four annual reports summarise the performance of each organisation against objectives previously set in the Statement of Intent, says Audit finance Risk and Monitoring Committee chair Gail McIntosh.

'These are developed collaboratively between Council and the CCO boards and outline each organisation's vision and what it will focus on.

”The CCOs' annual reports address how each organisation successfully supports Tauranga in becoming an internationally competitive city that aims to provide a higher standard of living for all.”