Colliding Continents

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Weak Dollar Serves Another Blow to US Travelers

The unhealthy state of the US economy is doing US travelers no favors whatsoever. In order to make up for the devaluation of the US dollar, airlines and cruislines have included fuel surcharges. Now it appears that US tour operators are going along for the ride as well including currency surcharges to their tour packages.

The largest tour operator in the US, Globus, have just added currency surcharges for their European tours. The surcharges range from $50 to $190 per tour package. According to Steve Born, the vice president of marketing for Globus, "It's a direct result of the currency value differences between the dollar and the euro," simply put it just costs more money now to operate there.

Other operators have been steadily increasing their package prices to account for rising costs, a strategy generally employed by most major tour operators worldwide. In the case for Globus, they did not expect such a downward swing in the value of the US dollar.

Removal of the surcharge depends on the strength of the dollar. The better the green back’s footing on the world currency stage, the more likely the surcharges will be removed. In regards to Steve Born’s outlook for the dollar and its effect on travelers he says "The new reality for American travelers…I tell people it's where it's supposed to be. Don't wait for it to recover. We're not as wealthy as we think we are."

Written at 5:41 PM by Sebastien.

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