Visa spend during Dubai's DSF up 12% to $53.7m
The total Visa spend in the first two weeks of the 2015 Dubai Shopping Festival rose by 12 percent compared to the same period in last year's festival, according to new figures.
Statistics issued by Visa, the global electronic payments firm, said restaurants were among the top categories to benefit with 31 percent growth as Visa cardholders spent $53.7 million this year, up from $40.9 million.
Other high growth categories included consumer electronics, up 22 percent, and supermarkets, up 14 percent, with transaction volumes rising from $30.5 million to $37.2 million, and from $107.6 million to $122.2 million respectively.
Fashion retail ranked first in spending volumes, accounting for $151.2 million of total international and domestic spending in the first two weeks of DSF 2015, Visa said in a statement.
Visitors from Saudi Arabia and the UK emerged as the top spenders in the first two weeks of the 2015 festival, contributing $35.18 million and $29.98 million, respectively, to the UAE economy.
This was up from $27.29 million and $27.74 million spent during the same sale period last year.
Visa cardholders from Angola saw the biggest percentage increase in spending with a total of $28.47 million spent in the first two weeks, registering a 97 percent growth in transaction volume over the previous year.
At a regional level, visitors from Middle Eastern and North African nations remained strong users of their Visa payment cards and spent a total of $96.75 million during the first half of DSF. This was followed by Europe at $72.69 million and Sub-Saharan Africa at $54.36 million.
Marcello Baricordi, general manager UAE and global accounts lead at Visa Inc MENA, said: “DSF 2015 has delivered promising results, with the rise in spending indicative of the phenomenal impact the event has on the economy.
"One very interesting trend for this year has been to see the growing affluence of emerging markets in the Sub-Saharan region such as Angola that has almost doubled its spend on Visa cards in the first two weeks of DSF 2015, compared to the same period last year.”
Original article
