Cards get big workout during March

Chris Wiig of Chris Wiig Suit & Menswear is hoping for chilly weather to catch up with a Hawke's Bay lift in retail spending.

Hawke's Bay retail spending was up last month and not because Easter fell in March.

The region's March retail spending rose 9.5 per cent in value compared with the same period last year.

Paymark figures show the number of debit and credit card transactions were also up, 11.3 per cent.

Hastings City Business Association general manager Susan McDade said March was a strong month for retailers.

"The reports I am getting back are people are about 10 per cent up on last year for March," she said. "There is a lot of positive feedback in town."

Easter was traditionally a quiet period for retailers and the Easter Highland Games and the Big Easy cycling events were "not huge drawcards for tourists", but this year was different, Ms McDade said.

"Easter tends to see a drop in Hastings, but this year we had a very strong Easter sales. The days we were open, it was absolutely heaving people in town."

She credited miserable, wet weather for the holiday lift.

The busy March had continued into April.

"This last weekend was really busy while last year the same weekend was quiet."

Napier City Business manager Zoe Barnes said when retailers were able to operate on Easter weekend they were "incredibly busy".

"The Saturday and even the Tuesday following were very busy days for Napier businesses," she said.

"The two days they are closed is not ideal from a retail perspective and I do know that they are very much welcoming the changes in legislation, that will hopefully happen next year, to enable them to open."

She said while Easter was good for CBD retailers the trend was "very much an upward swing".

Hawke's Bay was increasingly a holiday destination helped by extra Jetstar flights from Auckland.

Tourism Hawke's Bay general manager Annie Dundas said Easter was one of the region's busiest tourist weekends.

"It was one of the last long weekends after a pretty good summer. We tend to see quite a lot of people coming through," Ms Dundas said.

Chris Wiig of Chris Wiig Suit & Menswear said the upward swing had missed his business, thanks to mild weather.

"We need a change in season in our industry," he said.

"A change in weather will really kick us away."

Nationally, March spending was up 7.1 per cent in value compared with March 2015.