U.S. Tourists Find Bargains as Euro Drops

The euro’s collapse has made the green in their pockets worth more here than at any time since the mid-1980s, and the Americans are coming, in greater numbers than ever.

Bostonian Kelly Moore, 18, jetted into Rome this week from Britain, where Europe’s fledgling common currency isn’t legal tender, with two bargain-hungry friends.

“Apart from the attractions, the main reason why we’re here is the shopping,” Moore explained, as she and the rest of the trio scoured the boutiques around the Piazza di Spagna for designer clothing and shoes. “You can buy more things for the same amount of money.”

For her wedding, Kathryn Dianos, 40, a New York fashion designer, began comparison shopping last fall and found to her shock that she and her husband, a 42-year-old attorney, could get married on a French country estate--flowers, food, champagne and two nights’ stay included--for half of what a midtown Manhattan hotel would charge for a single afternoon. To tie the knot, they chose the historic Chateau d’Ermenonville, the final residence of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, northeast of Paris.

“Every time we gave them a deposit, we’d get more for our money because the dollar would go up,” Dianos marveled.

As a result of the swoon of the euro, the official currency of 11 members of the European Union, the dollar’s value has gained 25% here in the past year alone. It is worth more in many countries of Western Europe than at any time since 1986.

“If you go to a luxury hotel in Paris, for example, you’ll pay around $100 a night less than last year,” said Patrick Goyet, director of the French Government Tourism Office in New York.

Art Lovers, Golfers Both See Prices Drop

For Americans who can’t afford such swank accommodations, there are savings nonetheless. Example: At Amsterdam’s newly remodeled Van Gogh Museum, a must-see for many college students on their maiden voyage to Europe, ticket prices were raised in January. But the mightier dollar actually makes the new fee cheaper--the equivalent of $6.25--for anyone swapping greenbacks for euros.

At Ireland’s Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links, a 103-room, 20-acre resort northeast of Dublin, an increase in the American trade recently forced the hotel to hire six more caddies to assist customers on the Bernhard Langer-designed course overlooking the Irish Sea. Also, revenue from golf club rentals is up 20%, as many guests from the other side of the Atlantic opt for more expensive graphite-shaft clubs.

“Ireland is no longer a destination for only affluent Americans,” Roison Wallace, Portmarnock’s sales and marketing manager, said when asked how the stronger dollar is affecting business. “People are now coming from America for stays as short as four days.”

Since the euro doesn’t exist yet as actual paper money or coins--that won’t happen before Jan. 1, 2002--it’s a fair bet that some foreign visitors weren’t even aware of the existence of what, so far, is basically an accounting unit for noncash transactions.

But what matters is that the familiar European currencies like the franc and lira are now pegged to the largely invisible euro. So when it loses ground to the dollar, so do the real-world notes and coins.

Thus for Americans vacationing in the euro zone--Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain--the increased value of their dollars has been a delightful development.

“It’s a good time to come right now,” said Lise Kingler, 40, of Baldwin, Wis., who was visiting exchange students in Madrid. “My son will probably be coming in the summer, just because the money is so good now.”

Many Europeans, in return, are grateful for the additional American business.

“I’m happy that they finally are coming,” Roberto Amendola, a taxi driver, said in Rome. “They are the only ones who give good tips--they are the best!”

There’s no indication of how long the bonanza for people holding dollars, whether tourists or U.S. residents in Europe, might last. Since the euro’s inception Jan. 1, 1999, it has lost 24% of its value relative to the dollar, dropping gradually over the last 16 months from $1.17 to a hair under 89 cents as of Friday. Economists differ over the reasons for the decline, though many credit the U.S. economy’s faster growth rate and higher returns on investment.

The number of U.S. tourists in Western Europe already had been running at unprecedented levels in many countries. The European Travel Commission, which is financed by 29 European nations to promote tourism on the continent, has predicted record highs during the peak summer season of roughly 6.2 million Americans, or 5% more than last year.

But what the Italians are calling the superdollaro may make even those optimistic figures too low. In Spain, for example, American tourism is up 20% so far this year.

“There is every reason to believe these projections will be exceeded,” commission spokesman Neil Martin said.

Such news is no surprise to the American Society of Travel Agents, which Thursday reported a survey indicating that 4 out of 5 of the hottest destinations for U.S. travelers this summer are in euro countries: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid and Dublin.

Europe Prepares for Influx of Visitors

The tourism industry, hoteliers and restaurateurs are optimistically making preparations. In Lyons, cradle of French haute cuisine, restaurants have been printing additional menus with the names of dishes translated into English. At the tourism office in Lyons, four more English-speaking guides have been hired, spokesman Bruce Redor said.

Plenty of Southern Californians will be in the mix.

“For me, May is already busier than last year,” said Ada Brown, owner of Seaside Travel in Long Beach. She estimated that she has booked 30% more trips to Europe this month than in 1999.

Adding to the attraction is that air fares to Europe are roughly the same as last year, and with an average of 100,000 eastbound seats daily from the United States provided by 50 rival airlines, there is plenty of competition to keep prices down.

“Advance bookings for all our services are exceptional,” Rhianna Quinnroddy, Delta’s director of civic and promotional affairs, reported. This season, the U.S. carrier has added service from New York to two new Old World destinations: Lyons and Venice.

Still, for many Americans heading to Europe, the favorable exchange rate is a sweetener, not the primary motive for their trips. Even with the dollar seemingly on steroids, a Coca-Cola at Les Deux Magots, the legendary cafe once haunted by Jean-Paul Sartre and other Paris existentialists, costs the equivalent of $4.50. Across the continent, hotels and restaurants are often pricey by U.S. standards.

“I think it doesn’t matter how high the dollar is. You’ve got to see it,” said Fabrizio de Fresco, an elderly New Yorker on his second trip to Rome. After buying postcards and half a dozen strings of rosary beads, he stood arm in arm with a gray-haired woman one day this week, gazing at the Trevi Fountain, one of the Eternal City’s most celebrated attractions.

“I wanted to show my wife,” De Fresco explained.

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A Stronger Dollar

Europe’s shrinking euro has made Americans’ dollars go further in the 11 countries that have officially adopted the common currency. Examples of typical tourist purchases in 1999 and this year and savings for visitors, in U.S. dollars:

Double room at luxury hotel, Berlin

1999 price: $281.00

Current price: $223.00

Savings: $58.00

*

Gourmet a la carte dinner at three-star restaurant, Paris

1999 price: 157.00

Current price: 122.00

Savings: 35.00

*

General admission ticket to bullfights, Seville, Spain

1999 price: 21.00

Current price: 16.00

Savings: 5.00

*

Bottle of Irish whiskey, off-premises store, Ireland

1999 price: 20.40

Current price: 15.50

Savings: 4.90

*

Souvenir poster of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” Amsterdam

1999 price: 14.00

Current price: 10.70

Savings: 3.30

*

Cup of espresso at sidewalk cafe, Rome

1999 price: 2.42

Current price: 1.84

Savings: 58 cents *

Note: Euro value used for 1999 is $1.17; value used for 2000 is 89 cents.

Source: Times European bureaus

*

Times staff writer Carol J. Williams in Berlin, special correspondents Stephen Gregory in Los Angeles and Cristina Mateo Yanguas in Madrid, and Maria De Cristofaro of The Times’ Rome Bureau contributed to this report.