The Lions will play the Highlanders tonight at Forsyth Barr Stadium following the match against the Crusaders in Christchurch last Saturday — the only two games of the 10-match tour to be played in the South IslandNew Zealand Rugby Lions series general manager Nigel Cass told the Otago Daily Times that did not mean Lions supporters would only spend a few days in the South Island.
"As we get closer to the test series then more and more fans are going to come out. We already saw them in Christchurch and more of them will be in Dunedin," he said.
"The South Island gets two bites at it ... when you come all the way out from the UK and Ireland you want to have a look around. A huge number of those fans are going to come south to see the south of the South Island.
"In 2005, outside the test venues, Queenstown was the most visited town in New Zealand. So the people will want to have look around."
The Lions team will travel to Queenstown after the second test for some rest and relaxation for a few days.
Cass said logistically the tour was a major event, holding the equivalent of a test every three days.
The Lions were staying at their sixth hotel of the tour in Dunedin and had a touring party of 84.
Cass said the 2005 Lions tour had pumped $140 million into the economy and that figure was expected to rise this year.
Studies, with the involvement of Government, were under way to gauge the financial impact of this tour.
The Bledisloe Cup was set for Dunedin on August 26 and Cass was confident it would be a great event and people would come along.
A few hundred tickets were left for the game tonight and he hoped to sell them all, to get a 28,000 full house.
The available tickets are in category A, category C and category D.
