Santa to visit Pāpāmoa every second year

Pāpāmoa's Santa Parade will now be every second year. Photo/File

Pāpāmoa's annual Santa Parade will now be held every second year after crowd numbers for the event "plateaued".

Papamoa Unlimited told Tauranga City Council's audit, finance, risk and monitoring committee that it believed making the parade a biennial event would help revitalise it.

"We are taking a year off," Papamoa Unlimited deputy chairman and Papamoa Plaza centre manager David Hill said.

Hill said the number of people attending had "plateaued".

Regional growth rates were up 5-6 per cent but the event was not becoming any more popular in terms of attendance, Hill said.

"Pāpāmoa is growing at huge rates but our numbers have stuck at 15,000 for quite some time," he said.

"We are not cancelling it, we are just revitalising, reinvigorating so it can be bigger and bigger every second year."

Hill said a biennial event would benefit the small pool of volunteers who participated in the event, including local kindergartens, schools and businesses.

"It means the event can be a fundraiser for schools so they can raise money rather than spend it," he said.

"It gives us the opportunity to try something new. So we can go bigger and better next year ... We don't want to be unencumbered just because it is a tradition."

A family-friendly community event would instead replace this year's Santa Parade in December.

Papamoa Unlimited events manager Sarah Lewis said Christmas was a busy time of year and often proved tricky for businesses to think about making a float for the parade.

"I think the key about having it every second year is it allows us to improve the quality of the event," she said.

Lewis said this year's "carnival type" event would take place on the grass area adjacent to the Papamoa Plaza from mid-afternoon to early evening on December 16.

"Our community is spoilt for choice with Christmas parades around Tauranga; this will give kids an alternative event to go to every year," she said.