U.S. Euro Revenge: Floods of Fat American Tourists

The U.S., and the rest of the world, is being held hostage to the woes of Europe.  Don’t fret about it.  Americans are about to take revenge on Europe for its poor fiscal management policies that have elevated the theory of a double-dip recession into a real risk of a double-dip recession.  Now that the Euro is breaking under the $1.20 mark, Europeans are about to have to endure waves and waves of American tourists.

French wine country, Greek isles, Pamplona, the Riviera, the Eiffel Tower, World War II cemeteries, the Alps and more… All are about to be flooded with American tourists.  Flip-flops rather than real shoes, muffin-tops on the jeans, nothing else spoken besides “American,” cheap beer in cans, constant reminders about French vineyards growing California grapevines, and floods of people wondering why soccer is so popular and why Notre Dame is not a place for higher education.

Don’t feel too bad about it though.  We Americans also had to read over and over how Europeans traveling to America in 2008 and 2009 were getting their own domestic goods purchased while visiting New York, Chicago, and elsewhere were effectively negating your travel costs.

The bad news about the U.S. greenback going farther in Europe this summer is that the airlines and hotel companies know this as well.  Last year it was simple getting tickets for under $1,000 even around holidays for flights to Europe.  That is still possible this summer on select dates and on some carriers, but it is quite common to see fares of $1,100 to $1,300 for the same coach fares this summer.  It is also harder to find availability for more than two travelers on the same flight.  Many of those cheap hotel rates you also saw are higher or have not come down this year despite many being quoted in dollars, based more on strong demand than on currency.

As a reminder, depending upon your criteria, Euro and Dollar parity is really $1.18 rather than $1.00.  Is this really revenge?  No.  Just simple economics of what happens with disposable income.

JON C. OGG