Originally Posted by
number_6
No -- brutal is when it is worth 80% more; as the USD was in Australia not so many years ago. Now it is just more or less same pricing as US travel in NYC or Boston for example, hardly brutal. Now you know how Aussies felt coming to LA for the past decade
I don't buy that argument (which several people have made), simply because purchasing power parity is not 1:1 for USD/AUD. If you take the long run average fx rate then at the current level American tourists would be feeling the same sort of pinch that Australian tourits were back when the rate was below 50c. 3:1 on the AUDGBP rate stung too. $15 beers anyone?
