Lions fans spent $34m on credit cards

Thousands of Lions fans travelled around New Zealand during the tour. Picture / Footpress

Lions fans racked up over $34 million on their credit cards during the six-week tour of New Zealand.

Eftpos firm Paymark, whose network accounts for about 80 per cent of all electronic transactions in New Zealand, recorded over 250,000 transactions from United Kingdom credit cards during the tour period.

The tourists clocked up 40,000 transactions worth an average of $800,000 per day in June and the first two weeks of July.

Total credit card spending for the June month was $1.1 billion, with UK credit cards accounting for about $20 million.

The tour started with a match against Bay of Plenty on June 4 and finished with the third test against the All Blacks in Auckland on July 9. The other tests were in Christchurch and Wellington.

"From the figures we can see that Lions fans spent up large," Paymark general manager, Ron Brown, said.

The average spend on UK credit cards during the Lions tour was $137.25 per transaction, versus an average of $88 for New Zealand -based transactions.

The Department of Labour said previously that 29,000 tourists from Britain and Ireland arrived in this country last month, more than twice the number recorded in June last year.

- NZPA