Paymark figures show spending in Otago was down 12.5% compared with Boxing Day 2019, from $3.4 million to $2.9million.
In Southland it dropped 13.8%, from $1.1million to $900,000.
Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said the figures reflected a hit to Dunedin, in particular from the loss of cruise ships this summer.
"We would have expected them to be down, given how dramatic the effect of the international tourism market is on the region.
"That will be beginning to impact on Dunedin now with the lack of cruise ship visitors coming into port."
Mr Christie said he needed to examine the figures closely to assess the effect on different industries.
"I imagine there will be some parts of our economy that will be up, for example your do-it-yourself spend in hardware stores.
"Until you can compare those, it’s a bit hard to know what lies behind those figures."
He expected the lack of cruise ships would be felt in sectors such as hospitality and retail during the coming months.
Nationwide, Boxing Day spending dropped 2.2%, from $63.6million to $62.2million.
In a statement, Paymark said national spending was up about 20% on Saturdays in early November, before the Christmas spree started.
It put the lower sales compared with Boxing Day last year as partly because of poor weather in some regions this year.
Spending on December 27 was down 23.6%, but the sharper decline was likely because it was a Sunday this year, it said.
Marlborough had the biggest spending fall — down 17.8% — while Whanganui had the biggest rise (7.6%).
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Oh for crying out loud Mr Christie, look at the previous article, https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/boxing-day-sales-surpass-hopes, then decide how well the South has done. Banging on about the floating petri dishes of emmission bellowing cruise ships does nothing to help anyone. You're lamenting an unsustainable tourism model. Far too many cruise ships, far too much growth in cruise ships in far too short of a time. The bubble had to burst at some stage, and it certainly has now. Too many eggs in one basket, too much stress and impact on the city, the country, and our environment. The sooner the cruise ships are limited the better. Quality tourism over quantity tourism is something that should be thought through. It couldn't go on, there where just far too many tourists, and in fact, on a national level, those very concerns were being raised just before the Covid situation impacted. We have a chance to remodel and rethink our tourism industry.
Where's ol ird to moan about this eh?.