South Africans have continued to increase their spending on loved ones, with new data showing that sentimental spending has increased by 50% since 2015 – and the number of transactions is up by 63% during the same period.<\/p>\n
This is according to the latest ‘Mastercard Love Index’, which was created by analysing credit, debit and prepaid transactions across the past three Valentine periods (11th-14th February 2015- 2017) in South Africa.<\/p>\n
The index found that dining out<\/strong> for \u2018date night\u2019 remains one of the most popular activities for South Africans.<\/p>\n Share of spend on restaurants has remained stable over the past three years, taking a 34% share of spend and a significant 82% share of transactions in 2017.<\/p>\n Travel experiences<\/strong> are also a popular purchase, with hotels taking the highest share of spend (37%) with a 9% share of transactions in 2017.<\/p>\n The number of transportation transactions also increased by 144% in 2017, accounting for 21% of total spend during the Valentine\u2019s Day period.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data supports the rise of the \u2018experience economy\u2019 as happiness clearly comes from creating lasting memories \u2013 worthy of posting on social media \u2013 instead of purchasing \u2018things\u2019,\u201d said Mark Elliott, division president of Mastercard Southern Africa.<\/p>\n In comparison money spent on\u00a0traditional gifts such as flowers decreased by 25% in 2017 versus 2015 and the number of transactions decreased by 21%. Spending on jewellery decreased by 15% compared to 2015 but the number of transactions remained flat.<\/p>\n Trends<\/b><\/p>\n Some of the other major trends points picked up by the study include:<\/p>\n\n
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