The final weekend of the RWC was full of celebrations both on and off the field, with the All Blacks lifting the Webb Ellis trophy, and an close to $26.6 million pushed through Paymark's network between Friday and Monday, compared to the same four days in 2010.

Hospitality providers again reaped the greatest rewards of rugby revellers' sorrows and celebrations, enjoying a lift of 24.1 per cent, or $9.6 million across the country between Friday and Monday.

As host of the France vs. New Zealand battle, Auckland's hospitality providers worked overtime to satisfy celebratory eating and drinking before, during and after the game with spending up a huge 50 per cent across the four days. As with other major games, there was a spending surge after the Cup was raised, with a $1.0 million injection between midnight Sunday and 6 am Monday.

But it wasn't just Aucklanders that headed to pubs, clubs and restaurants to celebrate success - countrywide merriment spilled over to Labour Day, with hospitality spending growth via all cards skyrocketing to an average of 65.4 per cent across the country.

Regions to experience marked growth in hospitality on Labour Day included Auckland (+122.34 per cent), Wellington (+51.9 per cent), Waikato (+46.5 per cent), Southland (+42.6 per cent) and Nelson (+36.7 per cent).

Paymark Head of Sales and Marketing, Paul Whiston, says that the final game of the RWC was always going to bring a growth in spending - but that it was positive to see many of the regions that have missed out on big increases getting a slice of the action on Monday.
 
Foreign card spending through the Paymark network for the Cup to date now totals $260m, up $70m, or 36.5 per cent on the same period last year (9 September to 24 October).

Spending in the combined car rental, accommodation and hospitality sectors for all cards is at $603m, up $55m or 10.0 per cent for the same four-day period.

By sector, this can be further broken down to hospitality ($449m, + $46m), accommodation ($115m, +$2m) and car rental ($40m, +$8m).

Paul Whiston says that the extra spending is fantastic and will have made some retailers' days, but again, that other factors such as cash and pre-paid bookings need to be taken into consideration when assessing the full impact of the RWC.

"There have been a lot of predictions about the financial impact of the Cup, and our figures show that it has certainly benefited a selection of retailers and industries.

"However, as we have seen since the Cup began, in contrast to overseas visitors who have been spending up large throughout the Cup, it seems Kiwis are continuing to be more subdued spenders, which resulted in fairly flat spending since the Cup began," says Whiston.

Total spending (excluding fuel) for the country was up $195 million across the Paymark network (remembering that this equates to approximately 50 per cent of retail transactions by value) or 4.2 per cent during the tournament in comparison to the same period last year. This was below the average year-on-year spending growth rate of 4.5 per cent during the month of August this year.



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