International Travel & Staycations Drive Growth in Summer Spending in 2025
Consumers in Egypt, Pakistan and Qatar are embracing digital payment options and experiences more than ever before.
Summer 2025 across Egypt, Pakistan, and Qatar marked an impressive surge in premium Visa cardholder spending, signaling a broader shift toward luxury travel and the adoption of digital services. On average, summer spending with Visa premium cards increased by 33% year-over-year in the three countries. Extended getaways remained a dominant trend, consistently capturing 66% of travel spend in each market. Alongside this, eCommerce spending among premium cardholders jumped by over 31%, showing a growing preference for alternate payment methods.
This growth is closely tied to evolving consumer preferences: travelers are embracing longer trips, exploring popular as well as emerging destinations, and showing strong confidence in seamless digital payment experiences. In Qatar, premium cardholders accounted for 71% of total summer spend, with notable increases in leisure, dining, and eCommerce payments. Pakistan saw a marked rise in digital payments by premium Visa cardholders (up 110%) and outbound travel spend, while Egypt summer 2025 spending on Visa premium consumer cards rose 44% year over year.
Visa’s Retail Spend Monitor was produced by Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA), capturing total retail, travel, and experience-related activity during summer break in these three markets, based on a subset of VisaNet data and complemented by survey-based estimates for other payment methods.
With the regional expertise of Visa Consulting & Analytics and the scale of VisaNet, Visa empowers clients with actionable insights into evolving consumer behaviors — helping them plan strategically, respond faster to demand shifts, and unlock new growth opportunities, especially during key seasonal moments like the summer holidays.
For more insights, see below:
International Travel Drives Growth in Summer Spending, Egypt | EN, AR
International Travel Drives Growth in Summer Spending, Pakistan | EN, UR
International Travel Drives Growth in Summer Spending, Qatar | EN, AR
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About Visa’s Retail Spend Monitor
The Retail Spend Monitor insights on national retail sales across all payment types. The findings are based on a subset of aggregate retail sales activity in the Visa payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for other forms of payment. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into consumer spending behaviors and trends, aiding retailers in strategic planning and market positioning. Premium card definition — Following cards are mapped under Premium category — VISA SIGNATURE, VISA SIGNATURE PREFERRED, VISA INFINITE, VISA INFINITE PRIVILEGE, VISA PLATINUM, VISA ULTRA HIGH NET WORTH.