Weak Dollar Could Mean Less Money For Foreign Countries

The American Dollar has recently been loosing a lot of ground to other major currencies such as the Yen, Euro, and Pound. Some overseas might think that this is a good thing. However it is not seen as a good thing by some such as travel agencies and major travel destinations. The Dollar may not be as strong as other currencies at the moment, but the Dollar is still very important overseas. Americans can be a substantial portion of European tourism. There was a drastic decrease in American tourists after September 11. But there has been a large increase in American tourism in several countries lately. However some agencies and governments feel that the weakening Dollar could lead to a stagnation or decline in the amount of American tourists.

London estimates 2.7 million Americans visiting this year. If the Dollar continues to weaken it could mean a substantial less number of Americans decide to travel and a huge monetary loss. This is why several companies (and countries) are trying to encourage Americans to travel with lower hotel rates and several different types of discounts. Several hotels in London are guaranteeing room rates by the American Dollar. This means that Americans are guaranteed to pay the amount they booked the room for. Now one might say, “Duh, that’s how it works here”, however that’s not necessarily true. For example someone might book a room right now for 30 pounds, but if the Dollar continues to weaken by the time the tourists gets over to the hotel the room is now $75 instead of the $60 they thought they were paying for it. In other words the pound price will stay the same, but the conversion to pounds will cost Americans more. Therefore guaranteeing rates in American Dollars provides an incentive for American to go ahead and book hotel rooms without fear of increased prices a month later.

Other cities such as Berlin and Tokyo are doing similar things such as offering discounts to try and entice the American tourist. The Dollar may be weakening but Americans still play a very large roll in the world economy and other countries may not depend on the U.S.A. like they used to, but they realize that they still need us. While the strength of the Euro, Yen, Pound, etc. are good for that country, Americans are a large portion of European tourism and they would much rather have Americans over there paying with a weakened Dollar than not paying at all.

The new travel discounts London, Tokyo, Berlin offer deals to counter dollar's decline, San Francisco Chronicle