Supporting acceptance of electronic payments at large, international sporting events promotes higher transaction volumes among tourists for the countries that host them even after the events are over, according to a recent tourism impact report from Visa Inc.
Visa has been a major sponsor of the Olympic Games for 25 years and, along with its efforts to sponsor the FIFA (soccer) World Cup, has determined that these events are an opportunity to boost merchant revenue locally by providing a payments environment tourists are used to in their home countries, Paul Wilke, a Visa spokesperson.
“We are trying to show that it’s not just the event [that produces transactions],” says Wilke. “The event is the catalyst for growing tourism from that moment and beyond.”
Visitors who travel far to get to an event typically stay longer to visit surrounding areas, he notes.
In its report, Visa evaluated three major events: the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China; the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada; and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
For the Olympics in China, Visa cardholder spending was up 15% compared with the same period the previous year; for the Olympics in British Columbia, Canada, spending was up 93% compared with a year earlier; and for the World Cup in South Africa, spending was up 82% from the year before (see chart.)
Wilkes claims the events aided in economic recovery in tourism for these regions, particularly in Canada, which had a lull in tourism in previous years. In that region, Vancouver experienced double-digit growth in tourism spending by Visa cardholders during February and March compared with 2009, and they continued to boost spending into the spring and summer (
In Vancouver, cardholders made 1.14 million Visa transactions with an average daily spend of $7.2 million from international cardholders during the Olympics.
In Beijing, Visa cardholders from the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan accounted for more than half of all Visa card spend in China during the Olympics in August 2008. During that month, consumers from outside China conducted about 840,000 Visa transactions with an average daily spend of $10.6 million.
In South Africa, spending levels by international Visa cardholders continued even after the World Cup was over. Spending reached $220 million in December and $200 million in January, which compares to $222 million in June and $204 million in July when the tournament was taking place. The correlation of comparing different timeframes is to show that cardholders continued to spend tourism dollars on Visa cards even in months following the sporting event.
Despite Visa’s attempt to tout the benefits from its sponsorships on Visa activity, all card brands actually benefit when payment card use and acceptance are promoted in a region, one observer notes. “Once you get the customer in the door [paying with their card] there’s a long-term benefit because they will come back,” Rick Oglesby, senior analyst at Boston-based Aite Group, tells PaymentsSource.
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