Tauranga's event industry leaders are constantly working towards attracting more events to the city - but there is plenty more that can be done to boost the city's profile and economy.
In the 2016-17 financial year, Tauranga's City Events team supported 233 significant events across the city and this financial year is tracking to be slightly busier than the last. This has been the trend for the last few years.
Events attract visitors from near and far, and from many different demographics.
Tauranga City Council's City Events manager Gareth Wallis says events play an important role in helping the city achieve both economic and social outcomes, delivering immediate economic benefits by bringing new money into the economy through event income and visitor attraction.
"Hosting these events brings visitors who support our hotels, shops and restaurants, they provide work and revenue for our local businesses, and locals can enjoy amazing event experiences they can be proud of right on our own doorstep," Wallis says.
"As an example, the 2016 AIMS Games injected $3.05 million into the economy and brought 11,870 visitors to the city, contributing to 47,500 visitor nights," he says.
"Events also contribute to the social wellbeing of a city by bringing people and communities together, exposing residents to new opportunities and experiences, and giving them a sense of community pride and belonging."
In the peak season of summer, visitors flock to the city and there is no shortage of events.
The One Love Festival at Tauranga Domain. Photo/File
"Tauranga's residents and visitors can experience a diverse range of sporting, arts, cultural and entertainment events coming to the city over the next year, including the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in January and February 2018," he says.
"This high-profile, international sporting event will be complemented by successful local and home-grown events such as the Tauranga Arts Festival in October 2017 and the Bay Dreams and One Love music festivals early in 2018."
Often, multiple events are organised for the same time, although the city's industry leaders would love nothing more than to spread them out to better benefit the city's economy.
"Where possible, council provides advice and guidance to event organisers about other activities taking place in the city so they can make informed decisions about when and where to hold their events," Wallis says.
"In an ideal world, it would be for everyone's benefit to have events spread evenly across weekends but for a wide variety of reasons, this isn't always possible.
"For example, artist availability might dictate when a music festival is scheduled but the broadcast rights and television scheduling might dictate the dates for an international sporting tournament.
"No amount of intervention will change either of those factors and the decision to proceed with either or both of those events would ultimately sit with the event organisers and, or promoters."
Tourism Bay of Plenty's chief executive Kristin Dunne. Photo/File
Tourism Bay of Plenty chief executive Kristin Dunne says the organisation works closely with the City Events team, event organisers and promoters.
While their website lists major events that would be of interest to visitors, as does the visitor guide, Ms Dunne says this year "we are producing a standalone events guide which will be distributed throughout the region".
"Events are a critical way to drive visitors in the off-peak and shoulder seasons and help with seasonality issues for the accommodation, hospitality and retail sectors."
With a lack of bed numbers in Tauranga, Dunne says this is one of the areas they are looking into in a bid to find out the true demand for accommodation on any day, not just during the peak visitor season.
"Other cities have this information and it gives them insights and data that event organisers can use to understand where the gaps are and when events need to help plug those gaps."
One weekend sure to fill beds is Auckland Anniversary Weekend between January 27-29, when two major events - One Love and the Black Caps versus Pakistan cricket match - are held, with both bringing thousands of visitors to Tauranga.
Wallis says the city events team works to co-ordinate conflicting event activity with a view to ensure the pressure on the city at any given time is manageable.
"This is particularly difficult in summer when Tauranga is one of the most popular places in the country to be."
During busy weekends such as this, leaders say there is plenty of opportunity for the city to reap full benefits of events and cash in on the influx of visitors that come in.
Tauranga Arts Festival director Jo Bond. Photo/File
Tauranga Arts Festival director Jo Bond says cross promotion is a vital way for event organisers and Tauranga businesses to do well.
During the festival, which this year is scheduled for October 19 to 29, they let audiences know about restaurants and retailers supporting them as well as other events coming to Tauranga.
"We work quite a lot with our sponsors to promote their stuff," Jo says.
But there is still plenty of opportunity for more businesses in the Tauranga area to work with event organisers and tap into specific audiences by offering targeted specials or deals and boost spending in the city.
Bond says everyone from event-goers, the business community, event organisers and the community as a whole can benefit from a better streamlined approach to information sharing.
Wallis encourages Tauranga's businesses and community groups to consider ways to boost their event benefits - whether it be offering specials for particular event-goers, dress up storefronts, increase related social media presence, offer competitions relating to planned events or cross promote each other.
"The level of engagement from businesses and the community is directly proportional to the success of events, from buying tickets and spreading positive word of mouth, through to providing relevant equipment and services to event organisers and promoters," Wallis says.
"Council welcomes and encourages businesses and the community wanting to proactively engage with events happening in the city."
He says his team is well connected to the local and national events industry and on hand to make it as easy as possible for event organisers to host events in the city and is available for information sharing if appropriate.
"The team is the main point of contact for event organisers if they want to hold an event on council-owned public open space and they work across all council departments to facilitate event approvals, and any specialist support required to facilitate safe and successful events."
The level of engagement from businesses and the community is directly proportional to the success of events, from buying tickets and spreading positive word of mouth, through to providing relevant equipment and services to event organisers and promoters.
As a way of attracting more people to Tauranga, particularly in those off-peak months of winter for example, Bond would like to see more cultural offerings as well as a boost to the city's infrastructure through purpose-built amenities that can be used for all types of events in all kinds of weather.
She believes the city is lacking a multi-purpose, warehouse-type space that can be used to attract events for the winter seasons.
"I think we've got all the opportunities," Bond says.
Wallis says council is constantly looking at infrastructure options for the city's events.
"The provision of new event infrastructure is an ongoing conversation with a wide variety of event partners. Some new initiatives will be considered as part of the current Long Term Planning process and others are considered routinely as part of council's business as usual processes."
In the meantime, council aims to increase its profile at popular events to help spread the message Tauranga is a great place to live, work and play.
"Events and especially major events play a key role in showcasing our city."
