WELLINGTON -- The surge in Chinese visitor numbers was credited Wednesday with helping to spur New Zealand's core retail sales to their highest rise in more than six years.

The food and beverage service industry led the increase in core retail spending, which excludes vehicle-related spending, in the quarter ending June, the government statistics agency announced.

The spending volume for the core retailing industries rose by 2.3 percent compared with the March quarter, making it the largest increase since the December 2006 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"A record increase in the food and beverage services industry topped off the widespread rise of consumer spending, with increased sales in 12 of the 15 industries for the June quarter," industry and labor statistics manager Blair Cardno said in a statement.

The total volume of retail sales, including vehicle-related spending, rose 1.7 percent, with food and beverage services up 4.5 percent and department story spending up 5.4 percent.

The value of total retail sales was NZ$17.5 billion ($13. 94 billion), up 3.3 percent from the same period last year.

An Economic Update from the ASB Bank said the record rise in food and beverage services spending was unsurprising given the strong tourist numbers over the quarter.

"Sectors exposed to the tourist trade will also be looking forward to better times as long as New Zealand can continue to attract increasing numbers of Chinese visitors to offset still-low numbers from more traditional markets such as the UK and US," it said.

A record 223,000 Chinese visitors arrived in the year to the end of June.