Visa announces U.S. Tourism Outlook Report

Visa today released announcements on Outlook: USA, is the second annual report which outlines spending by international tourist on Visa payment cards. The report found that in 2008, Visa cardholders from the U.S. spent $42.4 billion on their Visa payment cards in the top 170 destination countries. This is up almost 3 percent from 2007.    Visa also introduced VisaVue Travel, a new service that will provide government agencies, hotels, airlines and other organizations within the U.S. tourism industry, unique insights into spending by international visitors to the U.S.

As the world’s leading payments brand, Visa provides more places worldwide where consumers can use their cards - 30 million merchant locations and 1.4 million ATMs worldwide. In 2008, Americans who ventured outside U.S. borders increased spending by 3 percent despite a challenging economic climate.

Top Destination Countries Include

á      Canada ($5.5B), the U.K. ($4.4B), Mexico ($3.5B), Germany ($1.6B), France ($1.6B) and Italy ($1.5B)
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