International tourism traditionally played a relatively large role in those regions, a likely factor behind the general strong spending in that part of the country, electronic payments company said in a report.
In February, Otago had 5.87million electronic transactions, up 7.93% on the same period last year. Those payments were worth nearly $294million, up 6.3%.
Southland had 2.26million transactions, up 11.5%. The transactions were worth $114.8million, up 11.6%.
The West Coast had 690,000 transactions valued at $36.4million, up 7.8% and 7% respectively.
Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen said international tourists continued to contribute strongly to spending growth, making up more than 10% of the extra total spending through Paymark in the last four months and more than 50% of growth among accommodation merchants.
Spending nationally through Paymark was $5.01 billion in February, up 5.1% since February 2017 and up 0.1% in seasonally-adjusted terms since January, confirming an ongoing, albeit moderate, spending momentum, he said.
The highest annual underlying growth rates were recorded by merchants in Marlborough (16%) which included Kaikoura, and Southland (11.6%).
Slow growth was experienced in Auckland-Northland (4.4%), Nelson (1.6%) and Canterbury (3.5%).
During the recent busy four months, nationwide Paymark spending reached $20.9billion, up 5.4% on the same period 12 months earlier, Mr Brislen said.
Within the total, payments with foreign-issued credit cards reached $1.8billion, constituting 5.7% of all payments.
At the margin, the tourist impact was greater. Annual growth in international credit card spending was 11.3% of the total spending growth.
The spending impact of international tourists continued to be greatest among accommodation merchants, where they made up 32.8% of the sector payments through Paymark and 55.3% of their annual payment growth.
Other merchants having strong links with international tourists included duty free and gift stores within ``selected retail shops'', art galleries, museums and activity operators, activities and events, and airlines and rental companies within the transport sector.
Conversely, there were many merchants where foreign-issued credit cards represented less than 2% of all spending, such as hardware stores, tyre companies, financial service providers and utility companies, he said.
Otago's spending growth measured through Paymark grew 11.5% in the four months ended February to $213.5million. The region had an 18% share of national spending on foreign-issued credit cards and 6% of all credit card spending.
Southland had $58.9million of Paymark transactions in the four months, up 20.9% on an annual basis. Southland had a 5% share of national spending on foreign-issued credit cards and 2.3% of all credit card spending.
