According to statistics issued by Visa, a global leader in electronic payments and official partner of Dubai’s leading retail event, the total Visa card spend in the first two weeks of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) 2015, between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15, rose by 12 percent compared to the spend in the first two weeks of DSF 2014.

The results were collected by the company’s payment processing platform, VisaNet, and include spend by both international visitors to the UAE and the Emirates’ residents during DSF, which this year marks its 20th anniversary.

In terms of total spending growth (international and domestic), restaurants were among the top categories at 31 percent, with Visa cardholders spending $53.7 million this year, up from the $40.9 million recorded in the same category at DSF 2014.

Other high growth categories include consumer electronics at 22 percent, and supermarkets at 14 percent, with transaction volumes rising from $ 30.5 million to $37.2 million, and from $107.6 to $122.2, respectively.

Fashion retail ranked first in spending volumes, accounting for $151.2 million of total international and domestic spending in the first two weeks of DSF 2015.

Visitors from Saudi Arabia and the UK once again emerged as the top spenders in the first two weeks of the 2015 festival, contributing $35.18 million and $29.98 million, respectively, to the UAE economy. This is up from $27.29 million and $27.74 million spent during the same sales period last year.

Marcello Baricordi, GM, the UAE and Global Accounts Lead at Visa Inc. MENA, said: “One very interesting trend for this year has been to see the growing affluence of emerging markets in the Sub-Saharan region such as Angola that has almost doubled its spend on Visa cards in the first two weeks of DSF 2015, compared to the same period last year.”