Visa Inc. said U.S. consumers accounted for $61.1 million in Visa cardholder spending in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, more than half of the total $115.3 million that attendees from around th world spent locally on Visa cards during the Games.
Spending on local travel, lodging, restaurants, entertainment and retail accounted for more than 92% of all Visa card spending during the games, the company said this week.
And total Visa card spending during the 17-day event was 93% higher than a year earlier. The total number of Visa card transactions in Vancouver during the games was 1.1 million, up 85% from about 59,500 transactions locally a year earlier.
Consumers from outside the U.S. accounted for about 47% of total Visa card spending in Vancouver during the games.
Among the top-10 countries, visitors from China were second with spending totaling $7.8 million, followed by the United Kingdom at $5.1 million, the Russian Federation at $4.3 million, Australia at $3.7 million, Japan and Korea at $3.6 million each, Hong Kong at $2.8 million, Norway at $2.4 million and Germany at $2.1 million.
Other countries Visa did not rank accounted for about $18.8 million in Visa card spending during the sporting event.
