SAN FRANCISCO Visa, the Official Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, today shared new data revealing initial consumer spending patterns during the kickoff of the 2024 Paris Games.

Paris 2024 Spend by the Numbers

• Small businesses in Paris benefitted from a 26% year-on-year rise in sales from Visa cardholders during the first weekend of the Olympic Games
• Most significant increase in spending levels in Paris were seen in theatres & museums +159%, food & grocery + 42%, restaurants +36%, retail goods +21%, entertainment +18%
• The largest share of overseas spend comes from U.S. Visa cardholders (29%), with significant year-on-year increases from Brazilian (+33%) and Japanese (+129%) Visa cardholders.
• 78% of international purchases in Paris have been contactless, up 9% year-on-year
• 39% increase in flight bookings to Paris in the lead up to the Games over the same period in 2023
• Increased travel to Paris by travelers under the age of 35, growing 120% year-on-year
• Travelers to Paris from the U.S. increased the most from the previous year (+64%), followed by Germany (+61%) and Spain (+27%)
• Spending is also up significantly in cities hosting Olympic events outside Paris including Saint-Etienne (+214%), Lille (+100%) and Marseille (+38%)

Charlotte Hogg, Chief Executive Officer of Visa Europe, said: “As a sponsor of the Olympic Movement for almost 40 years and the Paralympic Games since 2002, we know first-hand the impact that the Games can have to boost host-country economies, in line with Visa’s purpose to uplift everyone everywhere. Our latest data shows a significant increase in consumer spending among Visa cardholders during the Opening Ceremony Weekend.

“We’re particularly pleased to see the uptick in spending at French small businesses after we helped 13 million of them digitize over the last 4 years in Europe and connected them to spectators through the Visa Go app.

“The increased engagement of younger generations, which we see in the travel data, is also an exciting finding and shows the reach and relevance of the Games today and into the future.”

Visa’s responsibility to provide payment systems for the Olympic and Paralympic Games requires a robust and venue-specific plan combined with large-scale operations. Working hand-in-hand with the Organizing Committee for the last three years, Visa has built a custom payment network across Paris and beyond, which ensures Visa contactless payments are accepted at 3,500 points of sale across 32 Olympic venues and 16 Paralympic venues.