If you think that luxury brands or material goods are the only thing that the UAE’s well-heeled care about, think again.

A recent research by Visa showed that the well-off consumers in the country are putting more thought into giving back to the community by making donations to charity.

The Visa Affluent Study 2013, which surveyed nearly 5,000 affluent individuals in various countries, showed that the UAE’s well-off consumers want to spend more on charitable donations in the future than family or luxury weekend holiday, dinner at a fine restaurant and evenings out. In other markets, spending on family holidays is a priority for most consumers.

The study, which looked into the affluent’s spending habits, priorities and optimism about the future and indexed their propensity to spend on discretionary items in the future, included other countries such as Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Singapore.

“What is perhaps surprising is that most of the affluent agree that one of the most important aspects of wealth is to make sure that they use this position of responsibility to contribute to society. This is shown by the amount donated to good causes and the commitment to increase donations in the future,” said Marcello Baricordi, general manager for Visa in the UAE and Global Accounts lead.

Consumers in the UAE also have a positive outlook about the local economic fortunes and anticipate household and personal incomes to increase in the coming year.

The survey also asked respondents whether they intend to spend more or less on discretionary items in the coming year. Among the countries surveyed, the UAE ranked fifth, with China, India, Indonesia and Hong Kong occupying the first four spots.

Data collated by Euromonitor International showed that discretionary spending in the UAE and other parts of the GCC has been growing every year. As of 2012, consumers in the region spent a large proportion of their income on discretionary items like hotels and catering ($30 billion), transport ($33 billion), clothing and footwear ($27 billion) and leisure and recreation ($10 billion).

A global survey by Nielsen earlier found that consumers in the Middle East and Africa have a habit of making unnecessary purchases, with four out of ten people admitting that they shop on an impulse.