Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan said that figure was ‘‘good news for the whole region’’, given the numbers of domestic and also international tourists who travelled to attend the match.
‘‘There was a huge contingent from outside Dunedin ... the city was full and thriving.’’
Accommodation was not included in the Paymark data and was likely to have added another several million dollars to the economy, Mr McGowan said.
Data from transaction processor Paymark said Monday-Tuesday hospitality spending trends during May were $1.64 million on average for each of those two days, but for last Monday-Tuesday that was boosted by $860,000 to $2.5million for the48-hour period.
The spending was Otago-wide and included Dunedin, Queenstown and all other towns, Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen confirmed when contacted.
‘‘Given that most of the increase occurred immediately before and after the Lions game, it’s reasonable to infer the extra spending can be attributed to the event and was most likely in Dunedin,’’ he said.
The largest period of spending was either side of the game, between 5pm-7pm and 10pm-midnight, which for some providers was two to six times higher per hour than the average spending in May, Mr Brislen said.
