Spending levels have increased in Paris as a result of the Olympic Games, with theatres and museums seeing an increase of 159 per cent during the first weekend of the sporting event.

According to data from payment giant Visa, which is one of the official sponsors of the Games, sales at small businesses have seen a 26 per cent jump compared to the same period of last year.

Spending on food and grocery in the French capital rose by 42 per cent, while restaurants benefitted from a 36 per cent increase in spending.

Visitors from the US accounted for 28 per cent of spending while Japanese visitors increased their spend by 129 per cent compared to last year.

Around 78 per cent of international purchases in Paris have been contactless, which Visa said is a nine per cent year-on-year hike.

The rise in spending has also increased in other cities which are hosting major Olympic events. Visa said Saint-Etienne had seen spending rise by 214 per cent while Lille had seen a jump of 100 per cent compared to the previous year.

To cope with the increased spending, Visa said it had built a custom payment network across Paris to ensure contactless payments are accepted at 3,500 points of sale across 32 Olympic venues and 16 Paralympic venues.

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

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