A Yen for a Bargain

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The British are coming, most by air, a few by sea. So are the Japanese, the French, the Germans, the Italians. Not to mention the Australians, Brazilians, Thais and Taiwanese. As the U.S. dollar lingers near its lowest post-World War II levels against such foreign currencies as the Japanese yen and the West German mark, large crowds of visitors from overseas are streaming onto U.S. shores this year, cameras and shopping lists at the ready. From California's redwood forests to the South's Gulf Stream waters, from Malibu to Maine, foreign tongues are echoing through all the familiar U.S. tourist attractions -- and some of the offbeat haunts as well.

So debilitated is the dollar that some Europeans -- not just the jet-set crowd, mind you -- are dropping in on New York City just for a weekend, blitzing the stores along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and queuing up for Broadway shows. "We've been to Majorca, Crete and Yugoslavia," says one of the whirlwind invaders, Phil Stevens, 43, a carpet fitter from Britain. "But," he crows, "America is so cheap this year!"

Crowded too. The U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration expects 11.9 million overseas visitors in 1988, 1.4 million more than last year's record number of arrivals. The largest contingent will come from Japan, which will send an estimated 2.8 million people, up 32% from 1987. Next in line are 1.6 million Britons (an 18% increase), 1.1 million West Germans (10%), 585,000 French (8%) and 350,000 Italians (10%). The only major countries not participating in the upsurge of tourist traffic to the U.S. are Canada and Mexico. The Canadian dollar has not gained nearly as much ground against the U.S. dollar as the European and Japanese currencies have, and the peso has fallen 45% against the greenback in the past year.

As the summer tourism season swings into full gear after the Memorial Day weekend, U.S. hoteliers, theme-park operators, tour organizers and car-rental agencies are bracing for a flood of revenue, certain that the visitors will bring plenty of money to spread around. A Government survey done in 1986, when the dollar was 25% stronger, showed that an overseas traveler spent an average of $1,358 ($340 on gifts and souvenirs alone) while in the U.S. This year visitors are expected to inject some $10.7 billion into the U.S. economy. Partly because of this infusion, revenues for the U.S. hotel and motel industry could rise to $54 billion, up 6% from 1987.

The decision to book a trip to the U.S. is a matter of dollars and sense: it is now as cheap for Europeans and Asians to head to America as it is for them to vacation much closer to home. Visiting the sun-splashed beaches of Okinawa costs a Tokyo couple about as much as a hop to Hawaii. For $342, a Parisian can choose either a 1 1/2-hour flight to Corsica or an eight-hour trip to New York on planes chartered by the French tour operator Nouvelles Frontieres. And now that a pound buys $1.87 (up from $1.04 in 1985), Britons are taking advantage of package deals such as a Virgin Atlantic Airways offer that takes them to New York on a Thursday, deposits them in a hotel for three nights and gets them back, bleary-eyed, to London's Gatwick Airport by the following Monday morning -- all for $690. A similar jaunt from London to Rome would cost $537 -- but the pound does not go nearly as far in Italy as it does in the U.S.