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London theatres get Olympics boost

Visa

3 min read Partner content

Tourists visiting London have been flocking to the capital's theatres, restaurants and shops according to new figures from Visa.

Theatre and other ticket purchases by international Visa card holders increased 114% last week to £5.3m.

Last minute West End theatre deals and additional spending on tickets for the Olympics itself may be behind the surge in spending.

The figures come from Visa’s third weekly London 2012 Games Spend Tracker.

It tracks both domestic and international spending in the UK during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Spending by international visitors on Visa cards in restaurants between 30 July and 5 August was up 19.6% from £10.6m a year ago to £12.7m.

Overall, the international spend on Visa cards is up 8.0% year-on-year and 2.6% week-on-week.

Nightclub spending was up 24% to £2.1m and card spending on attractions and exhibitions was up 12% to £2.3m.

Retail, Services and Entertainment sectors among the biggest beneficiaries of international spend, accounting for 27.7% (£126.6m), 19.4% (£88.6m) and 14.9% (£68.1m) of total international spend in the UK on Visa cards respectively.

US Visa card holders account for 12.7% of total international spend - £58m.

Visitors from Japan were second with £30.2m, France was third with £28.4m, fourth was Italy on £26.8m and fifth was Australia with £22.5m.

Dr. Steve Perry, Commercial Director at Visa Europe said:

"The Games are building a massive feel good factor not just for the host nation but for all those visitors currently enjoying all the UK has to offer.

"There was plenty to cheer about in the first full week of the Games as total spending on Visa cards by international visitors reached £457m.

"It would appear that visitors are out celebrating the success of their athletes in some style with restaurant spending up by almost a fifth and nightclub spending by almost a quarter on this time last year."

Domestic spending on Visa cards from 30 July to 5 August was £7.4bn, up 3.4% week on week.

Spend on clothing and footwear shows the largest year on year increase of 6.6%, followed by transport and communication, up 4.4%.

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The Visa London 2012 Games Spend Tracker tracks both domestic and international spending in the UK during Games Times.

Domestic spend figures are based on spending on all Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards which are used to make an average of over 1.9 billion transactions every quarter and account for £1 in £3 of all UK spending.

For domestic based indicators – which are based on card issued to UK households – the spending data are adjusted (where applicable) for a variety of factors such as refunds, cash back, card issuance, changing consumer preferences to pay by card, and inflation.

These adjustments mean these data are distinct from Visa Europe’s business performance and are done so with the aim to provide a robust indicator of real UK consumer expenditure.

For international data, spending on all Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards from outside the UK is taken into account. The numbers are not adjusted for any of the aforementioned factors.

Therefore direct comparisons with indicators of domestic spend should not be made; the international data should be viewed as indicative of trends in international spending patterns in the UK during the London 2012 Games.

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