The latest plunge of the dollar (more than 2 dollars to the British pound now and 1.35 to the Euro) caused many Americans in Europe to scale back their vacations, July 19 NY Times article reports. Apparently, these things are all relative. It has not significantly influenced the number of Americans traveling to Europe. Just as people are getting used to the nearly $4 gallons of gas, they are getting used to $5 cans of soda and $300 mediocre hotel rooms in Europe.
What it has changed, however, is the number of Europeans–with strong currency to their advantage–traveling to the US. It was cheap for Europeans to buy clothes and electronics in the US before (because of the low sales tax) but now with the exchange rate, it is super-cheap. Last time I was flying from London to NYC, they actually handed out magazines advertising all the real estate bargains in the world. One of the bargains was Manhattan, NY. I had to laugh.