Visa has released new data revealing initial consumer spending patterns during the opening weekend of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. As the official payment technology partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa has identified the positive impact that the Olympics has in boosting commerce in Paris.
Working with the Organizing Committee for the last three years, Visa has built a custom payment network across Paris and beyond. This ensures Visa contactless payments are accepted at 3,500 points of sale across 32 Olympic venues and 16 Paralympic venues.
The released data has shown a 26% year-on-year rise in sales for Paris small businesses during the first weekend of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. There has also been a significant increase in spending from Visa cardholders in many areas of commerce including restaurants, theatres and museums. Additionally, 78% of international purchases in Paris have been contactless, up 9% year-on-year.
Interestingly, the biggest share of overseas spend comes from U.S. Visa cardholders, with most significant increases in year-on-year spending from Japan and Brazil.
The most significant increase in spending levels in Paris were seen in theatres and museums by 159%, food and groceries by 42%, restaurants by 36%, retail goods by 21% and entertainment by 18%. Similarly, there has been a 39% increase in flight bookings to Paris in the lead up to the Games over the same period in 2023.
Travellers to Paris from the U.S increased the most from the previous year by 64%, followed by Germany by 61% and Spain by 27%. Spending is also up significantly in cities hosting Olympic events outside Paris including Saint-Etienne, Lille and Marseille.
Commenting on the released data, Charlotte Hogg, CEO of Visa Europe said, “As a sponsor of the Olympic Movement for almost 40 years and the Paralympic Games since 2002, we know first-hand the impact that the Games can have to boost host-country economies, in line with Visa’s purpose to uplift everyone everywhere. Our latest data shows a significant increase in consumer spending among Visa cardholders during the Opening Ceremony Weekend. We’re particularly pleased to see the uptick in spending at French small-businesses after we helped 13 million of them digitise over the last 4 years in Europe and connected them to spectators through the Visa Go app.