Council controlled organisations reported another successful year with visitation and usage of services and facilities being up across the city.

Bay Venues Limited hosted another record number of almost 2.1 million visitors in 2017/18. Its 24 facilities, including community centres and halls, indoor sports facilities as well as ASB Arena and Stadium, were used for over 103,000 hours during the financial year.

BVL's key venues, ASB Baypark Stadium and ASB Arena, hosted 28 major events in total, significantly exceeding their target of 12. Music events such as Bay Dreams and the Bryan Adams concert contributed to this success by attracting more than 24,000 and 8,000 visitors respectively from across the country. International events such as the World Junior Squash Championships attracted international exposure and 17,000 onsite visitors at the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre.

The University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance continues on its successful journey to home high performance sports. It is now the home of rugby sevens with the national men's and women's teams training daily at Blake Park and the centre.

Tauranga Art Gallery continues to impress with its innovative exhibitions and events. In the financial year gone, 81,182 visitors got inspired by the gallery's programme, including 40,216 visitors during the popular interactive Art Loves You signature exhibition.

A third of the gallery's visitors were youth, with school visits at over 11,000 through education programmes and the free ArtBus, and 50% from Tauranga.

The gallery delivered 18 exhibitions, covering a broad range of genres and subjects, including multicultural experiences, with six solo exhibitions by Maori artists and two group exhibitions. The gallery's outreach included two national touring exhibitions and partnerships including the New Zealand Institute of Architects, Tauranga Arts Festival, Sydney College of Art and Te Uru Art Gallery.

Tourism Bay of Plenty (TBOP) reported a continued increase in visitor numbers and spend in the coastal Bay of Plenty, with annual visitor spend reaching over $1 billion for the first time. The $1.019 billion visitor spend reflects a 7% growth, exceeding the target of 3.3%. International visitor spend grew 11% year-on-year, reaching $217 million. Domestic annual visitor spend grew 6% year-on-year, reaching $801 million.

With $65.9m during the 2017/18 season, visitor spend generated by cruise activity sits at 15% of the national cruise spend. More than half of the 152,509 cruise passengers stayed local, in Mount Maunganui and Tauranga. Through high profile campaigns and partnerships with Air New Zealand and others, TBOP generated an estimated $34 million of additional public relations value.

The annual report from Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services Ltd (BOPLASS) highlighted a number of new inter-regional collaborative services established across councils. Financial savings have been made through new and existing joint procurement initiatives, including reduced costs by almost $100,000 on high-speed fibre network between councils.

Additionally, 72 local government related organisations have joined the BOPLASS Collaboration Portal over the last year, providing greater collaboration opportunities.

Tauranga City Council received today the annual reports for its five CCOs, Bay Venues Limited, Tauranga Art Gallery Trust, Tourism Bay of Plenty, Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services Ltd and the Local Government Funding Agency.

The annual reports outline the CCO's performance against set targets for the 2017/18 financial year.
Audit, Finance, Risk and Monitoring Committee Chair, Councillor Kelvin Clout, welcomes the annual reports, showcasing the results of the working-relationship between Council and its CCOs.

'Council's partnerships with its CCOs help us successfully deliver our community outcomes, including quality of life, quality of economy and sound city foundations,” says Kelvin.

'The five annual reports summarise the performance of each organisation against objectives previously set in the Statement of Intent. These are developed collaboratively between Council and the CCO boards and outline each organisation's vision and what it will focus on.”