British biggest spenders among visitors to UAE

British tourists visiting the UAE were the biggest spenders according to Visa's latest tourist outlook report. Despite rising unemployment rates of 7.9 per cent and a slow growth in GDP of 1.6 per cent, Britons spent more than $441.2 million between 2009 and 2010 on Visa-branded cards. "British tourist numbers have always been high in the UAE partly due to the historic ties between the UAE and the UK and because of the weather," said Kamran Seddiqi, general manager of Visa. Following the UK, the US and Russia continue to be the largest spenders in the UAE. American visitors increased year on year, spending by a marginal 0.3 per cent to $302.9 million (Dh1,112 million) and Russian visitors spent 36.5 per cent more. Article continues below The highest growth by transaction numbers is Brazil which increased 91.3 per cent between 2009 and 2010, followed by Sweden, up 47.5 per cent, and China, up 51.5 per cent, according to VisaVue data. According to the report, international Visa cardholders spent $3.1 billion (Dh11 billion) in a total of 12.8 million transactions in 2010, a 20.3 per cent increase on the previous year. "What we saw after the global financial crisis was a lowering of the average ticket size. "People would still book into hotel rooms, buy watches and clothes but were buying less. Now it's beginning to inch back up so higher value goods and hotels have come back into the picture," said Seddiqi. This increase in electronic payments is thanks to the high penetration the UAE enjoys. "There is very good penetration in the UAE. It's not exactly where it would be in a market like the UK, but it's very high compared to the rest of the region. Certainly for where tourists want to go and use cards there is almost a complete acceptance," said Seddiqi. While penetration is high, cash is still king in the UAE. "Electronic payments are somewhere between six and nine per cent of total expenditure in the UAE. But at the rate it's growing it'll get to double digits soon. "It's not where the developed economies are but will get there at some point," said Seddiqi. He predicts the UAE tourism industry will continue to pick up in the next few years. "The UAE is forecast to experience some of the world's strongest inbound tourism growth over the next five years." "Dubai has 46 million arrivals. You don't see that kind of proportion anywhere except for maybe in Singapore," he added.