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Visa cardholders from the United States last year spent more than US$42.4 billion (30.4 billion euros) using their cards in 225 top destination countries, while cardholders from all other countries spent more than $52 billion with their Visa cards in the U.S., Visa Inc. reported Wednesday. Visa released the data in connection with its launch of VisaVue Travel. The service enables tourism organizations and other subscribers to receive information about international spending on Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards. Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom topped the list of destinations for U.S. cardholders, accounting for a combined $13.4 billion in card expenditures. At more than $15 billion, general-retail spending last year accounted for 36% of expenditures for U.S.-based Visa cardholders traveling to other countries. State tourism organizations, including Phoenix-based Arizona Office of Tourism and Tallahassee-based Visit Florida, participated in a recent pilot using VisaVue Travel data to shape their travel-marketing programs, Visa said.
