A mayor-led delegation representing local business, educational, and sporting interests will jet off to China next week to promote Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty.

The delegation, organised by Priority One, involves 24 people spending 10 days visiting the cities of Beijing, Yantai, and Shanghai.

Priority One chief operating officer Greg Simmonds says there are some key focus areas for the trip.

'One of those is international education, so we have representatives from Education Tauranga and local tertiary institutes coming to market Tauranga as a destination for international students.

'Export Bay of Plenty is also representing a number of local exporters and doing market research for them.”

There will be a sporting element to the delegation, too, with the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union looking to strengthen ties with China. Last year BOPRU hosted Chinese rugby players at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance, and are looking to build on that partnership.

Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless is the only member of council going, and will be paying his own way along with that of his partner, Li-Jong.

'She has the added bonus of speaking Mandarin, so that will be helpful,” says Greg, who adds he'll be flying economy class, for any curious ratepayers.

He says his role will be helping to get other delegates in touch with the right people.

'Mayors are treated a lot differently in China. Here nobody gives a hoot, but over there mayors seem to be able to open doors.

'Last year I hosted a group of Chinese education agents and happened to mention Li-Jong's sons had been to Tauranga Boys' College. Well the next day the college received several enrolments.”

He says he's happy to be supporting local businesses and schools.

'In particular the latter are on limited budgets, so the more funds they can get from overseas students, the better for the whole school.”