ATEED’s ‘entertainment’ costs – from January 2017

The table below captures ATEED’s monthly ‘entertainment’ costs incurred since the start of January 2017, on a six-monthly basis. These can be generally categorised as business-related non-travel expenses.

Because ATEED's key economic development priorities such as attracting business and investment, and growing multiple components of the visitor economy, required ATEED to grow relationships with a range of partners – including multi-national companies and international investors considering projects in Auckland, tourism agencies, and business or major event organisers – staff were sometimes required to undertake hosting as part of their role, or hold external meetings with key stakeholders.

Staff were also regularly called upon to help Auckland leverage the economic development opportunities provided by the region’s investment in a portfolio of major events. This involved hosting guests from overseas or around New Zealand, and showcasing Auckland’s business capability and destination assets.

As with all types of sensitive expenditure, staff were expected to be prudent when spending public funds on business-related ‘entertainment’. Any such costs were required to be approved by line managers. The non-travel expenses  claimed by members of ATEED’s executive team are contained in the monthly ATEED-wide costs detailed below. 

The monthly amounts below are captured, along with various other account codes, within the line item ‘Travel & Entertainment’ in the monthly financial ATEED Board reports which are available online – our travel costs are also reported in detail within this Public Information section of this website. 

The lower monthly totals between September 2017 and mid-2018 reflected the fact that ATEED began a strategic review and assessment of priorities at that time which reduced the incidences of external meetings or hosting of key stakeholders. With the strategy taking shape by mid-2018, the ‘entertainment’ spend returned to a slightly higher monthly level.

2017  

2018

2019

2020

*About $22,500 of the costs incurred in June 2017 related to hosting international business visitors as part of leveraging of the DHL New Zealand Lions Series 2017. The targeted programme to showcase Auckland’s key growth industries also helped Auckland companies build connections with potential customers from countries including the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The independently assessed regional GDP impact of the tour for Auckland ($67.9m) exceeded its target.

**Credit due to timing of invoice processing

***Includes $14,000 GST for prior periods 2018