How Mount Maunganui's iconic visitor information centre and i-Port could look like on Coronation Park. Image/file
How Mount Maunganui's iconic visitor information centre and i-Port could look like on Coronation Park. Image/file
A crucial step towards the construction of an iconic visitor information centre in Mount Maunganui is due to take place today.
Tauranga City Council today decides whether to include the $5 million project in its draft 2017-18 Annual Plan.
Councillors will be asked to approve a site in Coronation Parkas the preferred location. The site was on the corner of Maunganui Rd and Nikau Crescent.
The council is proposing to build a combined visitor information centre for tourists and an i-Port to service passengers coming off cruise ships.
An alternative location to a high profile frontage on Maunganui Rd was where the visitor information centre used to be next to the police station in Salisbury Ave near the current gate used by cruise ship passengers.
Several councillors have indicated that it was too early to be putting the project into next year's annual plan because an alternative gate for cruise ship passengers accessing directly into the back of the park had not been negotiated with the Port of Tauranga.
Today's recommended decision proposes to make an investigation of funding options part of the annual plan process. The process would also include Mayor Greg Brownless and council chief executive Garry Poole discussing potential access routes for cruise ship passengers to the visitor information centre.
Visitor spending in the Bay of Plenty averaged $2.5 million a day, with a total of $933 million estimated to have been spent in 2016. This was an increase of $800,000 on 2015.
