For Americans, Paris still sparkles despite declining dollar
Monday, 16 July 2007
PARIS, July 15 (AFP): Dollar-wielding American tourists, undaunted by their crumbling currency, are still streaming into Paris and France in what could prove to be record numbers for all of 2007.
"If you counted every penny, you'd never leave home and just stay in the United States," said Jon Rasiawski, a salesman from Chicago in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
His gripe was not with the strong euro but with the cold and rainy weather that was afflicting the French capital.
Nonetheless, after paying 25 euros (34 dollars) for a "Paris"-stamped windbreaker for his daughter, he observed: "That would have cost less back home."
At the Maison de la France, responsible for promoting French tourism on a national scale, officials are expecting a record 3.5 million Americans to visit the country this year, boosting their spending by 10 per cent over 2006 to 5.0 billion euros (6.9 billion dollars).
And this despite a steady rise in the value of the euro against the dollar, which Friday soared above 1.38 dollars for the first since the creation of the single European currency, now used in France and 12 other European countries, in 1999.
"If you counted every penny, you'd never leave home and just stay in the United States," said Jon Rasiawski, a salesman from Chicago in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
His gripe was not with the strong euro but with the cold and rainy weather that was afflicting the French capital.
Nonetheless, after paying 25 euros (34 dollars) for a "Paris"-stamped windbreaker for his daughter, he observed: "That would have cost less back home."
At the Maison de la France, responsible for promoting French tourism on a national scale, officials are expecting a record 3.5 million Americans to visit the country this year, boosting their spending by 10 per cent over 2006 to 5.0 billion euros (6.9 billion dollars).
And this despite a steady rise in the value of the euro against the dollar, which Friday soared above 1.38 dollars for the first since the creation of the single European currency, now used in France and 12 other European countries, in 1999.