Big month of spending in Bay of Plenty as shopping tops $317 million

Lions supporters tended to stay on in and around Rotorua after the tour. Photo/File

In terms of spending, Bay of Plenty was the second-fastest growing region for the month of July.

Shoppers in the Bay of Plenty spent $317.2 million in July from 6.78 million transactions, according to the latest Paymark report.

West Coast, with an underlying core retail spend growth of 8.6 per cent, was ahead of Bay of Plenty with a growth of 7.1 per cent for July compared with the same month last year.

Underlying spending excludes large clients moving to or from Paymark within the past 12 months.

Rotorua Chamber of Commerce interim chief executive Allison Lawton believes Rotorua and the wider Bay of Plenty benefited from the way the Lions tour was organised.

"With games scheduled all over the place, the red army were travelling up and down, and backwards and forwards, all over the country," Ms Lawton said.

"I think we had visitors here for three or four weeks as opposed to the one or two nights surrounding our local game."

She said Rotorua trading appeared to still be buoyant and the region remained an attractive place to visit and set up a business.

Nationally, underlying spending through Paymark dropped by 0.5 per cent between June and July with growth between July 2016 and July 2017 a modest 3.6 per cent.

According to Paymark data, the trading patter for July highlighted two other key influences on top of low fuel prices and trading day effects. They were: growth slowing when the weather was stormy and also during the last three weeks of the month in Auckland/Northland, Wellington and Canterbury, especially among accommodation merchants.

The slower growth in accommodation came after the Lions Tour.