TRAVEL INSIDER : Off to Europe : Europe Is Cheaper, but Frankly, Not by Much : Prices: Cutthroat air fares and a stronger dollar are helping smooth the way to the Continent. Still, the cost per day for a visitor to Paris is estimated at $222.

Prick up your ears, travelers, but protect your virtue. The nations of Europe have begun their annual pre-summer wooing of the American market. And this year, acutely aware of those wearing tight budgets, they’re not just emphasizing the quaintness of their cottages or and the blueness of their seas. They’re also bragging about the weakness of their currencies.

Here’s the Greek National Tourist Organization, citing a U.S. State Department analysis of travel costs, labeling its homeland “western Europe’s most affordable destination.”

Here’s the Irish Tourist Board pointing out that “the bed and breakfast that costs 10 pounds is only $14.50 this year as opposed to $19 last year.”

Here’s the head of the Italian Government Travel Office in New York, noting that the lira is at a seven-year low against the dollar and proclaiming that “everything that makes Italy special costs much less today.”

Even the French Government Tourist Office is in the act--the same office that not long ago stopped taking phone inquiries for free and now charges 50 cents per minute for calls to an information hot-line (900-990-0040). A new booklet from the French stresses “good value” and begins with a listing of Paris hotels with room rates at or near $120 a night for two. (They found 143. For a free copy of the Insider’s Good Value Guide to Paris, write the French Government Tourist Office, P.O. Box 2658, Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y. 11779.)

And so on. These are wonderful words, and they hold some truth. Exchange rates have in fact improved dramatically from last year, and air fares are low. But if your conception of a European bargain was formed in a decade now gone by, or if it runs parallel with your concept of an American bargain, you will find that these are not quite the good old days.

“It’s less expensive, but it’s still not cheap,” says Mary Millar, a travel consultant for 16 years at Seaside Travel in Long Beach. “The only way you can tell what’s going to be really affordable is to check a rate, say, at a Best Western hotel in downtown Rome.”

In the ‘80s, Millar recalls, the rates for a very plain double room there ran around $50-$60. And now?

Millar punches up July 12 at that Rome Best Western and the number is . . . $110 a night.

Granted, the world of international economics is a little bit more complicated than that. But the bottom line is that hotel rates, restaurants prices and other costs on the ground have risen so much in recent years that they more than make up for A) cheap air fares and B) recent gains by the dollar against foreign currencies.

For purposes of this conversation, I went back 10 years to an L.A. Times travel section dated March 20, 1983, to relive the good old days.

That month’s best TWA fares (to pick an airline at random) from LAX to London were $849; to Rome, $865; to Paris, $1,082.

The U.S. State Department, allowing its traveling government employees an “adequate, suitable and moderately priced” experience, was giving them up to $98 for a night’s lodging and three meals in London. In Paris, $77. In Rome, $86.

Now to the present tense: Thanks to the air wars, TWA’s cheapest coach fares, like everyone else’s, have plummeted ridiculously: to London (for travel this month), $496; to Paris, $498; to Rome, $498. (A moment of respectful silence, please, for the wonders of capitalism.)

But hotel rates, restaurant prices and other on-the-ground costs have soared. The State Department this month is recommending that government travelers get up to $204 a day in London, $222 in Paris, $224 in Rome.

Runzheimer International, a Wisconsin-based consulting firm that calculates costs for business-level hotel rooms and first-class meals, has come up with similar per diem estimates, but for more luxurious facilities: the Hyatt-Hilton-Sheraton-style of business hotel and first-class restaurants. Even over the last five years, the difference in Runzheimer’s findings is daunting. In 1988, Runzheimer was recommending $259 a day for London, $293 for Paris, $202 for Rome. As of last month, the numbers were $316 a day for London, $404 for Paris, and $350 for Rome.

How’d we get here from there?

Inflation is part of it. Compared to 1983, the dollar now has almost one-third less purchasing power within the United States. Thus, if everything else remained equal, a $100-a-day city in 1983 would be a $145-a-day city now. But clearly, everything else has not remained equal. To name but one factor among many, demand has risen. American tourism to Western Europe has increased from about 4.8 million people per year a decade ago to an estimated 7 million last year.

People notice these things. Polling 2,000 affluent Americans last fall, the European Travel Commission found that security concerns--which killed the 1991 season--were no longer a leading factor in choosing vacation destinations. Instead, 66% of those surveyed named cost as their top concern. (Some 51% said time, 24% said safety and security, 21% said children). Of the survey subjects who chose not to travel to Europe, 46% named costs as the main reason. The next most common reason, the appeal of other destinations, ran a distant second at 21%.

(By the way, there may be Irish bed-and-breakfast accommodations available for $14.50 a night, as the Irish tourist board advertises, but more conventional hotel rooms go for much more. The State Department has set its nightly lodging rates at up to $142 in Dublin and $107 elsewhere in the country.)

There. Now that we’re seeing straight, a few words from our suitors.

First, for thousands of such words, along with lists, maps, mileage charts and color pictures to illustrate why Europe is the first choice of American overseas tourists, there is the newly published “Planning Your Trip to Europe” from the European Travel Commission. Free copies of the 60-page booklet are available to those who call (800) 626-3237 or write Europe Planner Dept. NN, P.O. Box 9012, East Setauket, N.Y. 11733.

The European Travel Commission is also hoping to lure us with numbers. Between Sept. 1, 1992, and Feb. 5, 1993, the commissioners note, the U.S. dollar’s foreign exchange rates rose in the following ways:

Against the British pound, up 38%.

Against the Finnish markka, up 50.8%.

Against the French franc, up 16.5%.

Against the German mark, up 18%.

Against the Greek drachma, up 27.1%.

Against the Irish pound, up 27.7%.

Against the Italian lire, up 43.1%.

Against the Norwegian krone, up 24.9%.

Against the Portuguese escudo, up 22.1%.

Against the Spanish peseta, up 28.5%.

Against the Swiss franc, up 23%.

Even if some tourist-serving businesses in these countries are raising their prices to keep pace with these rates, they can’t all be keeping up, and that’s bound to be good for American travelers.

The European Travel folks also offer a long list of money-saving tips, some of them self-evident (“Look for hotel bargains. Many hotels offer discounted room rates.”). Others are well worth repeating. For instance:

* Use public transportation whenever possible.

* Exchange currency at banks, rather than hotels. (Exchange almost anywhere, I would add, rather than at airports.)

* Ask about “VAT” refund forms when shopping. Many countries that assess value-added taxes on merchandise will give visiting foreigners refunds.

* Consider train travel, rather than air travel, between cities.

Now, if you’re still game for going over, here are some special events to plan around.

Antwerp, Belgium, is the Continent’s designated cultural capital for this year, with a long schedule of performances and exhibits. Santiago de Compostela, Spain, is celebrating the Holy Year of St. James, and so will have its own schedule of performances and exhibits. (The last such celebration was in 1982.)

Norway has scheduled year-round events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer Edvard Grieg’s birth. In Denmark, it’s the 150th years of the Tivoli Gardens, with some 144 classical concerts scheduled through the year. And let’s not forget the oil-wrestling matches of Erdine, Turkey, a sports tradition of more than 600 years. This year’s matches run June 29-July 5.