JEDDAH — 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, statistics issued recently by Visa, the global leader in electronic payments and official partner of Dubai's leading retail event. Visitors from Saudi Arabia and the UK once again 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 is 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 remain 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. This demonstrates the enduring popularity of the world's longest running festival of its kind as it celebrated its milestone 20th anniversary. 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.” In terms of total spending growth (international and domestic), restaurants were among the top categories at 31 percent, with Visa cardholders spending $53.7 million this year, up from the $40.9 million recorded in the same category at DSF 2014. Other high growth categories include consumer electronics at 22 percent, and supermarkets at 14 percent, with transaction volumes rising from $30.5 million to $37.2 million, and from $107.6 to $122.2, respectively. The results were collected by the company's payment processing platform, VisaNet, and include spend by both international visitors to the UAE and the Emirates' residents during DSF, which this year marks its 20th anniversary. — SG
