An influx of holiday-makers has overwhelmed Tauranga and Mount Maunganui retailers with a whopping $410.6 million spend-up in just one month.
The figure, released yesterday, was the total from 8m electronic transactions through the Paymark network during December and was up 9.9 per cent on the same month in 2015.
Dry Dock Cafe owner Sandra Johnson said she and her team were overwhelmed by the numbers of people pouring through the doors.
"There has been a marked difference in the volume of people compared to last year,'' she said.
"We were flat out two weeks before Christmas, which was a surprise for that time of year, but then the past two weeks has just been madness as well.''